


there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach

by sapphicsandseblos (solange_lol)



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Behind the Scenes, Canon Compliant, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Seblos, Slow Burn, hsmtmts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24027889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solange_lol/pseuds/sapphicsandseblos
Summary: Everyone knows about how Seb and Carlos went to homecoming together, but how about what lead up to that? And every moment after?Aka, my version of all my bts seblos moment hcs following each episode!
Relationships: Seb Matthew-Smith/Carlos Rodriguez
Comments: 33
Kudos: 91





	1. i think he'd rather play sharpay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blovesmusicals](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blovesmusicals/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"sometimes you know exactly what to say_  
>  _then you open your mouth and the words go away_  
>  _want you to wonder or to doubt or guess_  
>  _so let me tell you clearly what im tryna express"_  
>  —i think i kinda you know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to my take on the seblos relationship from the show! originally i was going to post it all together, but i thought i might as well do chapters instead. i hope you enjoy :)  
> thank u to all my friends on twitter who have been excited for this (bri, this means you)

Carlos Rodriguez is headed to auditions for the school’s musical when he hears a voice behind him. Granted, he doesn’t hear it right away, as he’s too wrapped up in his own thoughts about being choreographer ( _!!! _ ) for the show, but he’s able to snap out of it when he feels a hand on his shoulder.

“Carlos, hey.” He turns, surprised to see Seb Matthew-Smith standing in front of him. He knows the boy, of course, they’ve been going to school together for years, but Carlos can’t recall how many times they’ve interacted besides group projects and friendly waves in the hallway.

“What’s up, Seb?”

Carlos swore Seb suddenly dropped a little bit of his happy tone as nerves crept into his voice. “I have a question for you,” he starts, immediately causing Carlos’ brain to swirl with possible scenarios.

“Okay, shoot,” he says, still smiling at the boy.

“It’s about the show,” Seb starts, still clearly nervous about what he’s going to ask. At least his statement shortens Carlos’ list of guesses as to what Seb might ask.

“Oh! Are you thinking of auditioning this year?” He recalls Seb playing piano in the pit for the school musical the previous year, but he had an _ amazing  _ voice that belonged onstage. “Because you would make a perfect Ryan! I mean, you already look the part and everything!” 

Seb’s face falls for a moment before he straightens his back. “That’s the thing. I kind of was thinking of auditioning for Sharpay?” he asks hesitantly, and Carlos melts a little bit inside. His smile must reassure Seb because he proceeds to ask “Do you think Miss Jenn would be okay with that?”

“I’m sure she would be more than okay with it,” he says, squeezing Seb’s shoulder who immediately breaks into a big, yet soft smile.

“Okay! I’ll see you soon then, I guess!” He says, before turning and walking away, the smile still wide across his face. Carlos watches him go for a moment, before remembering that he’s supposed to get to auditions early to help set everything up. With that, he continues his exciting path to the auditorium. 

Carlos arrived at rehearsal still jittering with nerves about his role in the show, Miss Jenn had been the first teacher to give him a shot at something he was really passionate about, and he could not let anyone down. It was crazy already considering he was only a sophomore, but somewhere he knew he had it in him to do this show.

He was pleasantly surprised by the turnout; there were some crazy good dancers in this school, apparently. They were all very quick to follow the tutorial dance he had given.

Gina, who he also recognized from their grade as the new transfer student, was killing the game. He had no doubt that she would end up playing Gabriella if she had the voice for it.

He glanced over at Seb, who was at the piano playing the warm-up tune. He was still filling in the role for pit piano as they wouldn’t have the actual musician until tech week. Carlos was sad to not see him dance yet, but that didn’t take away from the high hopes he had for who would land the role of Sharpay.

The music he had been playing came to an end as the round dancers finished, catching their breath and grabbing their water bottles. Carlos clapped his hands together, “Great! That’s it for the warm-up!”

A murmur took over the crowd as everyone grouped back together. He heard one concerned voice asking “that was the warm-up?” and sighed, laughing just a little bit. Carlos wasn’t evil, okay? He just liked to push people to do what he knows they’re capable of.

Carlos turned back around as Miss Jenn had people pairing up. His eyes caught Seb’s for a second, who happily waved at him as he paired himself with a curly-haired dancer that Carlos had noticed before. He smiled back at Seb, before turning his attention to Miss Jenn once more. 

She had them doing a couple of partner exercises: voice warmups, trust falls, stretching, etcetera etcetera, while she and Carlos supervised to make sure nobody broke an ankle before they started the audition process.

After that, Miss Jenn rounded them all up and put them in a line as Carlos grabbed her folder of sheet music for each part, following her as she chose parts for each person to read. He couldn’t deny that her choices were impeccable, and everyone seemed very happy with their designated parts to read. Not to mention the hypothetical addition of a ballad for the girl who wanted to play Miss Darbus, which was genius. 

Carlos was a little surprised when Nini Salazar-Roberts, a girl he had seen only in the chorus of their shows, asked to audition for Gabriella. She was sweet, sure, and had a great voice, but she always seemed too shy to play the lead. Or, a part with any lines for that matter. He had hope for her, although Gina  _ was _ already off-book.

They approached Seb, who was last in line and had been nervously fiddling with the zipper on his vest. Carlos gave him a reassuring smile, which Seb gratefully returned until Miss Jenn gave her verdict. Her glance over of him was quick, and she smiled asking “You’re reading for Ryan, right?” 

Immediately, Seb’s smile was replaced with a look of fear. Before Seb could accept his fate, Carlos spoke up.

“I think he’d rather play Sharpay,” he told Miss Jenn. Seb’s smile was back as Miss Jenn turned around once more.

“I love that,” she said, an inspired look in her eyes. “That is so fresh.” She walked back towards the director’s table with that. Carlos pulled out the music for ‘Bop to the Top’ and handed it to Seb, who mouthed ‘thank you!’ with an excited look in his eyes and, for a second, Carlos felt his heart skip a beat.

That excitement went away later on though, and Carlos’s head was pounding after the fiasco that was those Troy and Gabriella auditions. He didn’t understand the drama and, frankly, he didn’t really care either. At least those auditions were over, and they could move on from whatever just happened. 

When Miss Jenn started calling out those who were auditioning for Sharpay, though, Carlos’ heart started racing as the hetero drama was replaced with the memory of his conversation with Seb from earlier. 

Carlos never had a problem at school about the whole gay thing, and he hadn’t heard a problem within the past few years. Sure, there was the occasional name-calling while passing in the hallway, but that stopped at the beginning of his sophomore year. He had never been shoved into a locker or beat up outside of school (yet, knock on wood). Still, though, casting Seb as Sharpay would be huge for representation. 

A few girls came up to audition, all singing the same first 16 bars of ‘Bop to the Top,’ and while most of them were good, nobody totally stuck out to Carlos. He had noticed that either they had the right personality for it but not the voice, or vice versa, and he could tell Miss Jenn was noticing it too. It did make him a little bit nervous for Seb, as he was used to him being sweet with a good voice, and had never really seen him be harsh in any way.

“What do we know about him?” Miss Jenn asked Carlos like she had done with every person so far.

“Seb Matthew-Smith. Was the piano accompanist last year, but an amazing singer and actor,” Carlos said, before adding “And male, obviously.” 

Miss Jenn merely smiled at the last bit before turning her attention back to the boy in front of her, who was still nervously fiddling with the zipper on his vest. “Whenever you’re ready, Seb!” she called out.  _ And don’t psych yourself out!  _ Carlos added silently. 

His fears immediately dissolved the moment Seb took the stage, leaving Carlos captivated. When he started reading Sharpay’s lines (it was the moment right after ‘Status Quo’ after Sharpay was hit with the cheese fries) Carlos couldn't help the smile that grew on his face as he watched Seb become a whole different person. His sweet personality had immediately melted and he watched in awe as Seb took up the entire stage. Maybe he was biased, but Seb was the best actor they had seen all day. 

The scene itself was phenomenal, but once Seb started singing the chorus for “Bop to the Top,” Carlos was floored. He knew that Seb had a powerful voice, but he never knew  _ how  _ powerful until there he was, performing like it was opening night. And judging by the look on Miss Jenn’s face, this wouldn’t be that last time he performed it either.

After the sweeping round of applause that followed Seb’s audition, as well as auditions for all the other leading roles, Miss Jenn sent everyone into the hall except for Carlos as they began to discuss the cast list.

By “discuss”, Carlos means Miss Jenn wrote down the cast list while he sat next to her and just nodded, knowing full well he didn’t _ really  _ have a say in it. For the most part, though, it didn’t really matter because he agreed with all her castings. Carlos maybe would have preferred Gina to play Gabriella considering her level of skill and experience compared to Nini’s, but he had to admit even after the weird mess that was the Troy & Gabriella auditions he was blown away by Nini’s voice in the audition. 

He was surprised when she asked him to immediately post the cast list, but went along with it. At least that meant they could get the show moving!

Carlos shoved past the crowd waiting (eavesdropping) at the door, hurrying forward with the green piece to stick on the wall before he got trampled by the swarm of theatre kids rushing forward to check the list. 

He noticed Seb was one of the first ones to it, immediately gasping in surprise, no doubt due to the  _ Seb Matthew-Smith _ written neatly next to  _ Sharpay Evans,  _ although Carlos didn’t really understand how Seb could think it would be anyone but him. 

He watched the rest of the drama unfold, rolling his eyes when he heard EJ Caswell complain “She thinks I’m a Chad?” Sure, he may have been a better fit for Troy, but Chad was still the second-biggest male lead. (Or, third in this case now that Sharpay was going to be played by a boy.) It made Carlos feel bad for those Miss Jenn had pegged as Chad’s previously and had now found themselves in an ensemble. Oh well though, he wasn’t about to try and argue.

Just as Carlos began to walk away from the madness, he felt a hand grab his arm. For a second, his heart sank, thinking it was someone who was angry about their part and was about to take it out on Carlos. 

When he turned around, though, it was just Seb.

“Oh, sorry,” he said quickly, letting go of Carlos’s arm when they noticed the surprised yet fearful look on his face. “I just wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me? For what?” Carlos asked genuinely. “None of those casting decisions were mine.”

Seb smiled softly. “I know. I wanted to thank you for what you told me earlier. I was almost about to back out, but you gave me the extra bit of confidence I needed.”

Carlos was still confused. “What do you mean? I asked if you were auditioning for Ryan.”

“Well, yeah, but then when I asked if I could audition for Sharpay, you looked excited,” his smile grew a little bit wider, and Carlos couldn’t help when the corners of his mouth lifted too. “This is my dream role and you helped me get it, so… thanks.” 

“Seb,” Carlos said. “That was all you.”

And the smile that Seb gave Carlos in return to that could light up all of Broadway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! follow my tumblr (@klaineiac) & twitter (@SE3LOS) for more :) <3


	2. let's stop swirling, and start twirling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"maybe i should turn around and take the other road_  
>  _or maybe im just looking for what i already know"_  
>  —wondering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mom says its my turn using georgie in a fic (i came up with some of my own siblings, but i love dazesanddoodles and all their matthew-smith sib hcs)

Carlos now has a hall pass to miss the last 15 minutes of study hall so he can get to rehearsal early. He probably would have been allowed to leave without one, considering everyone in the cast had been excused half an hour early for costume fittings, but he has Mr. Mazzara to thank for the small yellow paper he clutched in his hand now.

Miss Jenn was already in the bomb shelter by the time he gets there, quickly typing away at her phone until she notices Carlos standing in front of her.

“Carlos, perfect, just in time!” Miss Jenn says as her phone made a _fwoosh_ noise, confirming some order that Carlos couldn’t see. “I left the box of scripts in my office, so can you set up the desks and name cards for the read through? I’m thinking a circle for all the named roles, plus me, you, and our stage manager, and then the ensemble and the rest of tech can just be grouped together behind.”

He was about to ask _why not just put everyone in a circle_ , but Miss Jenn had already made her way out the door towards her office. He shrugs, not caring enough to argue with her judgment. Miss Jenn knew what she wanted; he might as well follow her agenda.

Carlos arranges the desks the way she had asked, then quickly slides over the top of one as he begins putting down the name cards for everyone. He starts with his own choreography card (keeping a mental reminder to take a photo with it later) then director, stage manager, Chad, Troy, Gabriella, and Taylor.

The next card stops him though. Carlos reads over the neat printed “Sharpay” as the conversations he had with Seb from auditions washed over him, warming his heart.

He glances over at the desk he had left off on, almost directly across from where he was sitting. Instead of putting it there, though, he bit his lip and turns, dropping the card on the desk next to his instead. 

With that, he kept going around the circle acting as if nothing happened. He makes sure to put the Ryan card next to Sharpay just in case anyone decides to ask why Seb was all the way on the other side of the circle from the other leads. Miss Jenn came back in a few minutes later with the box full of scripts.

“Oh that looks perfect!” she tells him, looking at the arrangement. Carlos sucks in a breath, expecting her to say something about the out of place Sharpay name card, but she doesn’t say anything about it.

The theatre kids begin filing through the door just as the bell rang for school to end as Carlos swipes through the few notifications on his phone as Miss Jenn calls for everyone to take their assigned seats. Nothing important, just a new post from Ashley Tisdale on Instagram, a few new twitter followers (he was surprised to see EJ Caswell was one of them) and-

Carlos groans, showing Miss Jenn the text he had gotten from Natalie.

“Who is Natalie Bagley and why do I care if her glands are swollen?” she asks.

“Our stage manager. Guess she’s not coming,” Carlos says, switching off his phone.

Miss Jenn immediately called out Ricky’s friend, Big Red, and asked him to read the stage directions. Part of Carlos is upset that she didn’t just ask _him_ to do stage directions since it wasn’t like he had any lines to read, but it was fine. They needed more tech kids anyway, maybe this would convince him to join backstage.

Or so he thought, considering the next near-hour and half was spent painfully listening to Big Red read the stage directions. Carlos at one point had shot Miss Jenn a pointed look, who looked stressed out of her mind as she asked him to read the punctuation. Unfortunately, Big Red had taken that seriously, and no one had the heart (or the energy) to correct him after he started reading “Sharpay comma heads for class period.” This, plus Carlos’s ADHD made him feel like he needs to take a lap around the school. Maybe around all of Salt Lake City before he’s ready to come back to this.

Instead, he chooses to glance over at Seb to his left, who looks just as spaced out as everyone else did. An idea pops into Carlos’s brain, and he quickly scribbles down an SOS on the blank sheet of paper he had been using to take choreo notes (in which there were none, yet. He couldn’t focus like this anyway.) He then folds up the note and tries to make eye contact with Seb.

Unfortunately, the farm boy was still spaced out as ever, staring at the pages which he turned while everyone else did, although his eyes weren’t moving along the words. 

The universe decides to apparently help him out, though as while Carlos was trying to get Seb’s attention, he doesn’t notice his pencil rolling off the table until it was too late. It clattered on the floor, not catching the attention of anyone except for the boy sitting next to him. 

Seb breaks from his trance, reaching down to grab the pencil before handing it to Carlos with a grin, and Carlos uses it as his shot to quickly hand the boy the note as he takes his pen back. 

He takes the piece of paper in surprise, cocking his head at Carlos for a moment as he unfolds the paper as quietly as possible. For a moment, Carlos wonders if it had been a bad idea.

Until, Seb reads the note and a smile grew on his face, grabbing a pen from his backpack nonchalantly so he wasn’t writing back in highlighter. Carlos noted that it was cow print and wrote in shimmery light blue ink, which, _aw_. 

He passes it back a moment later, and Carlos grins as he reads the response. Underneath his _SOS_ in round, loopy writing is Seb’s bubbly _ikr? big red is the sweetest but this plus my adhd my brain is GONE._

Carlos grins when he reads it. He didn’t know Seb had ADHD too (it’s not exactly something he advertises either, to be fair) but it’s always nice to see someone who can relate. He quickly scribbles back _same! im all for new tech kids but i think miss jenn should just let me read from here on out. and i_ _hate _ _reading out loud. (and i have adhd too, crazy lol)_

He passes it back to Seb, who’s brow furrows he writes, passing it back a moment later. It now reads _she really should. why didnt she? i mean, youre capable of anything, even reading out loud. (and that’s cool! i mean, not cool, but cool that you can relate :) )_

Carlos smiles. It’s sweet that Seb thinks that about him. He writes _not sure. perks of being the unpaid choreographer i guess._

When Seb gets it back this time, he smiles. _well, someone should pay you then. btw have you done the chem hw yet? mr mazzara is_ _killing me _

They continue passing the paper back and forth, veering off topic from the show and just talking about school and their families. It’s never been this easy for him to make friends, but something just seems _right_ when he’s talking to Seb, even if its through a piece of paper.

They end up covering the paper, only pausing when Seb has to read lines. They have to move onto the back at one point before Big Red finally reads the last sentence of Act I, and Miss Jenn calls for a break. Carlos is about to scootch his desk closer to Seb’s when Miss Jenn gestures for him to come talk to her. He shoots Seb an apologetic look, who just waves him off with a smile before adjusting his jacket and instead moves to talk to Ashlyn, who looks surprised when he drops down in the seat next to her.

As he follows Miss Jenn over to a corner of the bomb shelter, he worries for a second that she’s going to call him out for not only not paying attention to the script but distracting one of the leads in the process. Thankfully, it seems she didn’t notice and instead starts asking about Ricky and Nini. (As if Carlos has any idea what’s going on between them. Again, hetero drama that he doesn’t completely care about.)

“Should we think about recasting?” Carlos offers. 

“Absolutely not, my instincts are impeccable.” Miss Jenn replies, then adds, “and I’m not scared of a challenge.”

“This one might be impossible. She won’t even look at him.”

“Don’t underestimate me. I come from strong stock. My mother bounced back from an autopsy.”

Okay, not the reply he was expecting, but Miss Jenn was already calling them back together, which meant another hour of listening to Big Red read Act II. 

When he sits down, though, Seb smiles at him again, and Carlos pulls back out the paper.

* * *

A few days later, Carlos was packing up his backpack after they ended early rehearsal that day. Ricky stormed off, and maybe it wasn’t necessarily Carlos’s fault that he was quitting the show, but he could feel his chest getting tighter the more he tried to ignore it. If he had just pushed Ricky a little less or cut all the dance talk and tried just a little harder to get him to stay, they wouldn’t be in this mess. 

“Hey, do you need a ride home?” Carlos hears footsteps approaching. He hadn’t realized that anyone was still in the bomb shelter, but when he turned around Seb was standing there. They had talked before rehearsal and in classes, but during rehearsal, Carlos was barely able to spare a glance at the boy playing piano while he tried to teach choreography. Not that rehearsal was about interacting anyway.

“Don’t you live on a farm?” Carlos asks, even though he knows the answer. It’s more of a question of _why are you offering a ride if you live so far away?_

“Yeah, but don’t worry! Your house is on the way!”

Carlos squints at him, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly. “You don’t even know where I live.”

“No, but I’m sure it’s on the way,” Seb is grinning at him, and Carlos doesn’t want to say no. Besides, he told his mom they would be done at six, and it’s barely even 5 o’clock, so he nods.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. That would be good,” Carlos returns the smile and Seb beams. He finishes zipping up his backpack, swings it around his shoulders as Seb finishes sending a message on his phone, and the two walk out the door of the bomb shelter together. 

“By the way, I like your shoes,” Seb says without even looking down, and Carlos feels the slightest bit of heat rushing to his face. The shoes in question are cow print, and even though he bought them _before_ his conversation with Seb at the read through, he _did_ think of the boy this morning when he put them on. 

“Thank you,” Carlos says. He’s quiet for a moment, before asking “how are you so happy all the time?”

Seb looks surprised. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re always so smiley and nice, even when everything is crazy stressful, like right now. I feel like I’m just snapping and brushing people off.”

“Well, first of all, you’re definitely more stressed than me,” Seb says, turning his head towards Carlos as he speaks. “I barely played today, considering how much everyone has been arguing with you about the moves. I mean, just because Miss Jenn isn’t there all the time doesn’t immediately give them the right not to listen to you.”

“I think it’s that, plus being an underclassman,” he sighs, pushing open the doors to the main entrance of the school. “I mean, Gina respects me but she isn’t exactly the friendliest with everyone right now either.”

“Well, it’s not fair of them,” Seb says, and Carlos bites his lip. He already knew deep down what Seb had said was true, but just hearing someone say it out loud made it so much more real. 

When Carlos doesn’t say anything else, Seb continues. “Besides, it sort of seemed like you weren’t having the greatest time, so I was hoping if I was a little happier, you would be too. Is that stupid?” he asks.

“No, it’s not stupid. It helped. Thanks,” Carlos smiles, because it _did_ genuinely help. Well, either that or the venting. 

Seb smiles again, and Carlos feels his heart flutter just a little bit. Something about Seb’s smiles always made him feel warm. They never feel fake, and they’re always just as bright as the last.

They stop in front of a car, and Carlos opens the door to the back while Seb goes to the front seat. Behind the wheel is a girl a few years older than them who he presumes is Seb’s sister.

“Carlos, this is my sister, Georgie,” he introduces, and the girl turns to smile at Carlos. She has the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Seb.

“Nice to meet you, Carlos,” Georgie says. “Seb texted saying you need a ride, so where am I going?” 

For the most part, the car ride is silent. There’s music playing, a mix of old 2010’s pop and musical theatre, and Carlos can’t tell who’s playlist it is as both Seb and Georgie sing along. It’s not uncomfortable though, and he smiles as he watches the two of them together. He only has step siblings, and he’s not nearly as close to any of them as Seb is. 

“Do you have other siblings?” he asks out of nowhere, and both Seb and Georgie laugh.

“Too many to keep track of,” Seb shakes his head. “I’m a middle child of seven.”

Carlos’s eyes widen. “Seven? And they’re all fully blood related to you?”

“Yep. four sisters, two brothers. Josephine is the oldest, then our brother Cohyn, then Georgie, then me, then Sophia, Paisley, and Isaac. We’re all two years apart, starting at 21 with Josie, except for Isaac who’s 5 and was a bit of a surprise,” Seb explains, and Carlos feels his head spinning.

“How do you remember all that?” he asks, causing both the Matthew-Smith’s to laugh again. 

“Years of practice. To be fair, I don’t know like, half of their birthdays,” Seb says, earning a punch in the arm from his sister.

“Do you have any siblings, Carlos?” she asks.

“Two stepsisters on my mom’s side, both older. Isabella and Victoria,” Carlos says. “Isa is in college and Vic is about to graduate, but she goes to West High. I have a lot of cousins though, which are basically my siblings.”

“Us too,” Seb smiles softly. Carlos is expecting the _look_ that people give him when they realize his parents aren’t divorced, but there’s no change in his expression. It’s nice to not have people ask about it for once (not that he remembers a time before they were divorced anyway. He was three, it doesn’t really affect him anymore.)

Georgie pulls into the driveway of Carlos’s house, and Carlos opens the door. 

“Thank you for the ride,” he says.

“Anytime, Los.” The nickname hits Carlos harder than he’s expecting it to, and he stops for a second, registering it into the mind as his heart swells. Only family members had ever used that nickname on him before, and hearing Seb use it felt… different. But _good_ different.

“See you tomorrow,” he says, closing the door and waving goodbye to the two before running up the steps to his house. He can see them driving away as he closes the door.

“You’re home early,” his mother steps out from the kitchen, and Carlos turns. 

“We ended early. Sort of a dramatic day.”

His mother laughs. “Always is in theatre,” and Carlos can’t help but laugh too. “How did you get home? You could have texted.”

“A… friend gave me a ride. Seb Matthew-Smith, he’s our accompanist and he’s playing Sharpay.” 

He can see a twinkle in his mother’s eye as she nods. “Got it,” she says, stretching it out as she gives him a look.

“Not like that, mamá, just a friend,” he rolls his eyes with a smile. 

“Well, I’m glad you’re making friends. Dinner will be ready in an hour, I’m going out to play bunco tonight, so make sure you and Victoria clean up,” she tells him, and Carlos nods, taking that as his cue to go upstairs.

As he reaches his bedroom, though, his phone dings with a text from Seb (they had swapped numbers at the end of the readthrough) about the chemistry homework. Carlos sets down his backpack, pulling out the homework in question, and sets it on his desk while he texts back. 

His mother’s voice rings in his head. _I’m glad you’re making friends_ . It’s the first time in a while that he’s _had_ a close friend, and it fills his chest with warmth. 

* * *

“Where do you sit during lunch?” Seb asks Carlos out of nowhere, plopping down on the seat next to him during study hall. He’s in the library, researching other school’s performances of _High School Musical_ so he can try and get inspiration for their show. When Seb sits down, though, he pulls out an earbud.

“I mean, here, usually,” Carlos glances around the library. “Why do you ask?”

Seb shrugs. “Dunno, I’ve never seen you at lunch before and I was wondering who you sit with. I thought we might be in different periods, but we have gym and chem together sixth and seventh, and you mentioned to me yesterday that you have algebra fourth, so the only option left was fifth unless you take an extra class like some kinda psycho.”

Carlos blinks. “You kept track of all of that?” he asks.

Seb suddenly blushes slightly. “I mean, I don’t know the rest of your schedule, I was only really paying attention because like I said, I was wondering who you sit with. But I guess you sit with… no one…?” he trails off.

Now it’s Carlos’s turn to blush. “I mean, my mom plays bunco with the librarian so she always let me sit in here. The only other person I really talk to is Gina, but she has seventh period lunch. And I guess I could eat in Miss Jenn’s office, but sometimes she stresses me out and I can watch videos in here. Plus it’s a lot quieter than the cafeteria, although I _did_ run into Ricky today-”

Seb cuts him off. “Would you want to sit with me and Natalie? It’s only us at our table.” 

“I- uh. Yeah. Sure,” Carlos says.

Seb nods with a smile. “Okay, cool,” he says, then turns in his seat and logs into the computer next to Carlos.

“Why do you keep inviting me to things?” Carlos asks suddenly, gnawing on his lip.

Seb turns back to face Carlos again. “What do you mean?”

“You offered to drive me home, now you’re inviting me to sit with you at lunch.”

He cocks his head, smiling, although still clearly confused. “Because we’re friends, dummy,” he tells Carlos.

“Oh,” Carlos smiles. “Okay. Cool.”

Seb nods. “Cool.” 

They both go back to doing their work silently until Seb turns around _again_. 

“Did you say you saw _Ricky_ in here?” he asks.

“Yes! You’ll never believe what he did.”

“What?”

“He told me he’s joining the show again! And then, he started dancing. Like, in the middle of the walkway!” They both laugh.

As Carlos continues filling Seb in on all the details of his previous conversation with Ricky, he can feel his heart fluttering. He doesn’t know what is with the other boy in the long run, but hey, at least they’re friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> theyll have some depth at somepoint, im just setting up the dynamic! :))  
> im on tumblr @klaineiac & twitter @SE3LOS if you wanna chat or see some of my other ideas!


	3. tornadoes come and go, dance is forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"you shine just like the stars_  
>  _and im not even a night light"_  
>  —a billion sorrys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise! another update no less than a day later! for once i decided to do something with my 1am energy, and i wrote this entire chapter over the course of 2 hours! 10am me is not going to thank 2am me for this lol  
> this chapter is a little shorter since seb actually wasn't in episode 3, so i had to improvise (shoutout to em @ematthemoment on twitter for helping me out a bit with my idea for this!) anyway, happy reading!
> 
> oh! quick note! this doesnt occur until later on in the chapter, but _italics is carlos_ , **bold is seb** , & _**both is both!**_

Seb catches Carlos after rehearsal the day after his… interaction with Mr. Mazzara. They had been talking more in class and during lunch, as well as rehearsals whenever they had time to break and if Miss Jenn didn’t need anything. 

It had been their thing, now, to either drive Carlos home if they end early, or at the very least walk out the door and through the parking lot to their respective cars. It gives them a chance to catch up on whatever drama happened in rehearsal in person before they’re forced to text about it or wait until lunch the next day to talk. 

Seb had been absent the previous day though, and when he had asked Carlos about what had happened, Carlos responded vaguely about running through songs and the new Status Quo dance break with Gina. 

Truthfully, what came to mind was not either of those, but instead the conversation he had with Mr. Mazzara pre-rehearsal. Just thinking about it makes Carlos’s stomach sink as he hears the voice of the STEM teacher echoing in his head, reminding him that _maybe you should spend a little less time worrying about your drama teacher and a little more time making some friends under the age 35._

He had only been trying to help, as Miss Jenn looked distressed (how _was_ he supposed to read the conversation?) but that comment hit him like a wall of bricks. 

After Miss Jenn had shooed him away from the conversation and into the bomb shelter to practice Status Quo, Carlos’s head was pounding, only hearing those words over and over again. And of course, that had been that day that Seb was absent, which only made everything feel so much more real. He had put on a happy face for the sake of hopefully having the cast actually listen to him, but on the inside, he had felt like he was going to be sick.

“You ready to go?” Carlos asks, breaking his train of thought as he swings his backpack over his shoulders. He begins to walk towards the door, trying to focus on something else, like how Seb is wearing cute overalls today over one of his button-ups.

Speaking of Seb, though, he realizes the other boy is still planted firmly in place across the room. “Seb?”

“Are you okay, Carlos?” He asks. “You were fine on Wednesday, but I was gone yesterday and you just seem… different. If it’s something I did, please tell me because I-”

“It’s not you, Seb,” Carlos smiles slightly, although his chest feels tight. 

“Then what is it?”

Carlos sighs, walking back over to Seb and sitting down in the nearest chair. Seb follows suit, and he has to admit that Seb genuinely caring about him feels really nice. 

“Yesterday before rehearsal, I was just coming to give Miss Jenn coffee, and she was in the hall talking to Mr. Mazzara,” both Seb and Carlos cringed at the name (neither of them exactly loved him as a teacher) before Carlos continues. “She looked upset, or, like, freaked out about whatever he had said. I didn’t have any context to the conversation so I was trying to make sure she was okay, ‘cuz, like, you never really know, and um,” Carlos swallowed, picking at a fray in his jeans.

Seb, who was nodding as he talked, took Carlos’s hand comfortingly, which sent electric currents through the boy’s body. It was enough to make him continue, though.

“When I kept pushing Miss Jenn to make sure she was good, he told me that I shouldn’t be so focused on her, and I should try and actually make some friends. My own age, I mean,” it stung to repeat, even with Seb rubbing his thumb on the back of Carlos’s hand. 

Seb stopped all of a sudden, as Carlos was finally able to make eye contact with the other boy. “He said that to you?” he asked, painfully calm.

“I mean, not in those exact words, but yeah. Basically.”

Seb suddenly grabbed his other hand, fully tuning his body so he was facing Carlos. “You know that’s not true, right? I mean, first of all, you have friends,” he squeezed Carlos’s hands when he said that. Carlos opened his mouth to respond, but he wasn’t finished. “And not just me, I mean. Natalie, and Gina, and honestly Ricky, and Nini, and Ashlyn, and the rest of the cast. We’re all your friends. And there’s nothing wrong being friends with your teachers, as long as you aren’t friends with _him_. I mean, you and Miss Jenn are basically coworkers since she’s not technically a teacher anyway,” Seb rambled.

Carlos felt his chest release as Seb defended him and tried to make him feel better. For once since that conversation with Mr. Mazzara, it felt like the weight of the words had lifted a bit from his body. 

“I’m serious, Los,” Seb squeezes his hands again. “That was so mean of him, and its absolutely not true.”

Carlos smiles softly. “Yeah, I’m kinda figuring that out. Thank you, though, Seb.”

“Of course,” Seb returns with a soft smile of his own. 

They sit like that for a moment, ignoring how both of their rides are probably already at the school. Carlos tries not to overthink how casually Seb is holding his hands. 

“Mr. Mazzara _did_ walk in while we were running Status Quo, and the look on his face was priceless when he saw us singing. I guess he assumed we weren’t actually good, but it was the best we’ve ever sounded!” Carlos says suddenly, and Seb laughs. “I wish you were here though, so he could have heard you sing. Your solo in the song is _amazing_.”

Seb blushes slightly, breaking eye contact for the first time and looking down at his overalls instead of Carlos as he responds. “Thank you! No thanks to your impossible choreo.”

Carlos shrugs. “I only give you what I know you can handle. Even without it, though, your voice is amazing. I love to hear you sing.”

“So, let’s sing!”

“What do you mean?” Carlos laughs as Seb stands up suddenly, still holding Carlos’s hands as he pulls him over to the piano and down onto the bench.

“You didn’t get to hear me sing yesterday, and you had a bad day, so let’s sing!”

“When you say _let’s_ do you mean _us_ ?” Carlos asks, but Seb is already playing the beginning of _What I’ve Been Looking For_.

“You wanted to hear me sing, and I need to practice this song,” he tells Carlos, nodding at him to start out the song. Before Carlos can say anything, the song starts, and he sings.

“ _It's hard to believe that I couldn't see_ **_you were always there beside me. Thought I was alone with no one to hold but you were always right beside me_ **”

Seb jumps in when he’s supposed to, still playing piano as he sings, and Carlos relaxes into the song. He doesn’t usually sing in front of people, but he’ll make the exception here.

“ **And this feeling’s like no other. I want you to know.** ”

Seb’s voice is amazing, of course, and Carlos is so stunned by it that he almost forgets to join back in. 

“ **_I've never had someone that knows me like you do (the way you do!)_ **

**_I've never had someone as good for me as you (no one like you!)_ **

**_So lonely before, I finally found what I've been looking for!_ **”

As he plays the piano break before the next verse, Seb turns to Carlos with a grin. “I’m surprised you know all the words!”

“It’s what happens when you’ve been listening to the soundtrack for a decade!” Carlos replies with a laugh

“Well, it’s cute. And I like your voice!”

Carlos almost thinks he misheard Seb for a second, but they’re both blushing, so he assumes he did it. Before he can figure out how to respond, Seb starts singing again.

“ **So good to be seen, so good to be heard!** **_Don't have to say a word!_ **

_For so long I was lost, so good to be found!_

_I'm loving_ **_having you around._ **”

Carlos holds a fake microphone in his clenched fist, mocking the moves of Ryan from the movie that play so clearly in his head as he sings the next lyric. “ _This feeling's like no other._ **_I want you to know.._ ** _”_

**_“I've never had someone that knows me like you do (the way you do!)_ **

**_I've never had someone as good for me as you (no one like you!)_ **

**_So lonely before, I finally found what I've been looking for!_ **”

Seb is still smiling at Carlos while they sing, and for the first time, Carlos hears the lyrics. It makes him wonder why two siblings sing it in the show because _seriously_ ! Maybe it’s just him, or just the _company_ , but this sounds like the most romantic thing in the world right now. He tries to not think about how close he and Seb are squished together on the piano bench.

They both scat dramatically, still laughing and smiling at each other as Seb finishes the song with dramatic flourish. 

“Too bad there was no jazz square in there,” Seb sighs happily when he hits the last note.

“Oh, don’t worry, there _will_ be,” Carlos laughs. 

Seb sets his hand down on the bench, and for a moment, he glances at their hands merely centimeters apart. Carlos notices it too, and he swears Seb moves his hand ever so slightly closer so that their pinkies are touching. (Which isn't much considering Seb was literally holding his hand a minute ago, but it still makes Carlos’s heart beat rapidly.)

He’s about to suck it up and just grab Seb’s hand, but a notification goes off from Seb’s phone (it’s placed in the front pocket of his overalls. _Has Carlos mentioned he’s wearing overalls?_ ) Seb picks it up, glancing at the screen.

“My sister’s here, I should…” he trails off, standing up from the piano and going to grab his backpack.

“Yeah, I’m sure my mom was here, like, 5 minutes so me too,” Carlos grabs his backpack, and they walk out of the bomb shelter together.

They walk down the hallway in comfortable silence as Carlos reflects on the past five minutes. He had never experienced this feeling before, but Seb made him feel dizzy, in a good way. The blonde boy could put butterflies in his stomach just by looking at him, and all of their interactions made Carlos’s heart race and always made him smile.

He thought he had crushes before, but this was _so_ much different. This was so much more real. 

When they walked out the front door of the school, the fresh air hit Carlos’s still burning face. 

Seb turned to him. “Well, this is where I go.”

Carlos nods. “Yeah, same,” he replies, and he’s definitely still blushing. “I’ll probably text you tonight about the chemistry homework.”

“Yeah. Or just text me, like, about anything,” Seb shrugs with a smile, and Carlos feels a little bit better when he notices the pink still dusting the other boy’s face. He reaches his hand out for a second, barely brushing Carlos’s shoulder as he says “See you tomorrow, Carlos!” before he turns in the direction of his sister’s car.

“Hey, Seb?” Carlos calls quickly before he can lose his confidence.

“Yeah?” the boy turns right before he can step into the parking lot.

“Cute overalls!”

Even from the distance, he can see Seb flushing an even darker shade of pink. “Thanks!” he calls back, and Carlos nods, smiling.

And even when he gets in his own car and his mom asks him a million questions about why he’s late, it’s worth it.


	4. you're on, lovers!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"all i want is love that lasts_  
>  _is all I want too much to ask?"_  
>  —all i want

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) this chapter isnt my favorite bc it was more to develop friendships which is also why its so short, but i promise longer chapters ahead!! 5-10 are my favorite eps so get ready >:3  
> 2) dw the lyrics in the sumamry dont actually mean anything its just for ~aesthetic~  
> 3) seb is in the baking club its canon ashlyn told me herself 
> 
> okay enjoy!!

“So,” Ashlyn leans over during history. “You and Seb, huh?”

Carlos looks up from the textbook he was reading in surprise. “What do you mean?” he asked, eyes widening. It wasn’t Ashlyn talking to him that surprised him. They had become closer as rehearsals progressed. Also, when they both had lingered near the GSA poster, Ashlyn had struck up a conversation with him. Turns out she was bi, and theatre queers always stuck together anyway. It was her words, rather, that gets his attention. 

“I mean, you too stare at each other all through rehearsal, you sit together at lunch, he drives you home like every other day,” Ashlyn lists, and Carlos’s heart speeds up. _Was it really that obvious?_ “So are you two together, or…” she trails off.

“No! I mean… not yet,” Carlos feels his cheeks heat up. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind if we were… but no.”

Ashlyn smiles. “Cool. If it helps, he totally likes you too,” she adds.

“How do you know?”

She shrugs. “I just have a feeling.”

“Did he tell you?” Carlos feels his stomach twist. As much as he wanted confirmation that the other boy liked him back, the idea of hearing it from Ashlyn rather than him felt wrong.

“No,” she says, and Carlos lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “I mean, I haven’t asked him since I thought you two were already a thing. But we’re in baking club together and when I asked about you he kinda lit up.”

“Oh, okay,” Carlos nods, and his heart swells. “So what should I do about it?”

Ashlyn shrugs again. “I dunno, ask him out?”

He blushes. “No.”

“Alright, that’s on you,” she said. “But you _should_ ask him to hang out or something. Get closer to him, so when you _are_ ready it won’t be awkward.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to ask out Seb,” Carlos mumbles. “I’ve never dated anyone. I don’t know how to be a boyfriend.”

Ashlyn smiles sweetly. “I’m pretty sure he hasn’t either. It’s something you can figure out together, you know.”

After she says that, their teacher scolds them for talking, and the two bend back over the worksheet they’re supposed to be working on. As he stares at the textbook, though, Carlos can’t help but think about what Ashlyn said. They _would_ be figuring it out together. It’s hard to believe that someone like _Seb_ could possibly like him back, but it might just be true, and the idea of it makes Carlos’s heart leap to his throat.

* * *

“Every time we end rehearsal early, I feel like my life is a lot more like _Glee_ than I think it is,” Carlos says, rolling his eyes as he zips up his backpack from yet _another_ badly ended rehearsal. They had barely lasted half an hour today. At this rate, they’re never going to get the blocking done by the show. 

Seb laughs from where he’s organizing his sheet music over at the piano. Everyone had already filed out of the room, but Carlos purposely had taken his time, knowing that Seb would most likely be the last one out. By this point, it was just routine.

“To be fair, Miss Jenn was definitely a Rachel Berry in high school,” Seb comments, stuffing the folder in his backpack, and Carlos snorts lightly. “So,” he says, swinging his backpack onto his back. “Since rehearsal ended early, I’m assuming I’m driving you home?”

Carlos is about to say yes until he remembers what Ashlyn had told him earlier. Before he can overthink it, Carlos asks, “Or we could hang out? Since it did end so early… could we do chem homework or something together at my house?”

Seb looks surprised at first, and Carlos’s heart is still beating quickly, but the shock wears off quickly and is instead replaced with a smile. 

“Sure, I’d love to,” Seb says. 

As they’re walking out together, their hands brush together for a moment, and Carlos can’t tell if it’s on purpose or not. He debates grabbing Seb’s hand for a moment but ends up just grabbing the strap of his backpack instead to resist the urge.

Carlos swears that he sees Seb’s expression drop for just a second, but it’s so quick he probably just imagined it.

They still end up having Georgie give them a ride, who is surprisingly not upset about having driven all the way to the school just to drive the two of them back to Carlos’s house. Rather, she just gives Seb a sort of half-smile. He immediately blushes, giving her the stink eye, and Georgie just laughs.

On the ride over, though, Carlos realizes what they’re about to do. Seb is about to be in his house, in his _room._ He doesn’t know the last time he’s had someone in his room since 7th grade. Sure, Seb knows about his weird, split family already, but the idea of him experiencing it is so much scarier for some reason. He tried not to overthink it as Seb stepped into his house. 

“Carlos? Is that you, _mijo_?” his mother calls as he shuts the door, and Carlos suddenly realizes that he should have checked with his mom if Seb could come over before he invited him. To be fair, though, he’s never really done this before. 

“Hi, mamá!” He says as his mom steps into view. “I brought Seb over to work on some chemistry homework, I hope that’s okay.” 

He’s expecting some sort of disapproving look or passive aggressive comment about checking with her before bringing someone over. Instead, “So _this_ is the Sebastian I’ve heard so much about!” is what his mother says, much to his surprise. 

“It’s great to meet you, Ms. Rodriguez,” Seb says with a smile, and his mom raises a sly eyebrow at Carlos, who only gives her a _look_ in return. 

“Seb, are you staying for dinner?” she asks, turning her attention back to the boy.

“Oh, no, I need to be home to finish my chores. Thank you so much though!” 

“Chores, huh?” Now it’s Ms. Rodriguez’s turn to smile. “You could learn something from this boy, Carlos.”

Carlos just rolls his eyes. “I do some chores!” He defends. “Also, I told you mamá, Seb lives on a farm. His chores are a bit different from mine.”

“Alright, well, I’ll let you two get your homework done,” she dismisses them, and Carlos leads Seb upstairs to his room.

When they first enter it, Carlos immediately goes to his bed. He motions for Seb to sit down, who does so hesitantly. Neither of them say a word for a moment, and Carlos worries that he’s made a mistake inviting Seb over here. 

As if on cue, Seb breaks the silence.”So, you talk about me to your mom, huh?” he teases, and Carlos hits him with a pillow.

“To be fair, _she_ asked about you,” he says, which releases the tension as both of them relax, getting back to their normal selves.

They both take out their chemistry homework, but it ends up lying abandoned on Carlos’s desk in favor of the two of them discussing theater and rehearsal.

“Can I just say, your facial expressions while Nini and EJ were singing were priceless! If I wasn’t so focused on hoping that this rehearsal would actually stay together, I would have lost it watching you.” Carlos laughs, and Seb glares at him harmlessly. 

“Let's just say I definitely liked our version better! I’m telling you, trying to keep a straight face was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Surprised I can do anything straight, to be honest,” Seb says cheekily from where he’s laying on his stomach the foot of Carlos’s bed.

(The joke doesn’t exactly take Carlos by surprise, but just the casualness of it does. He had only ever made those kinds of jokes with Ashlyn, and had forgotten that he was able to make them with Seb too.)

“I love Nini, I do, but sometimes her ability to jump from boy to boy surprises me,” Seb continues. His phone lights up with a text notification, and he picks it up to read. “Speak of the devil, Nini just texted to tell me that she and EJ have officially broken up. Blocked his number and everything.”

“Wow,” Carlos raises his eyebrows. “I didn’t know you and Nini were friends.”

“Yeah, well, we met when we were young. Only other kid I knew that had two last names, which we decided to be the basis of our friendship, I guess. I ended up transferring schools, and I guess she skipped a grade or something because we didn’t meet again until last year when I got to East High and we got reintroduced during _Brigadoon_ ,” Seb explained.

Carlos nods along. He knew that Seb didn’t go to the middle school he had gone to with Nini and Ricky and all the others, but somehow it never occurred to him that he knew them before high school.

“I never really got close to her,” Carlos says, surprising himself. “I mean, we're friendly, but I guess I didn’t really think we had much in common. Plus Gabriella isn’t in any of the huge dance numbers, so I guess that’s how I ended up migrating more towards you and Gina.” 

He’s never really talked about his differences with the rest of the cast with anyone else because, well, he doesn’t really talk to the cast in general. Part of him wants to open up to Seb about the weird balance of being a sophomore who has some sort of authorial power over the upperclassman, but he can’t exactly put it into words and it hurts his head to think about. He files that thought away for later as Seb starts talking again.

“Are you calling me a dancer?” He asks, sticking his leg up for a moment. His tone is joking, but the smile across his face seems genuine, and it makes Carlos’s heart melt.

“Mmm, you could use some work,” he says, looking Seb up and down as if he’s judging his form, causing Seb to blush lightly. “No, but actually, you are a really good dancer. Compared to some of the others at least,” Carlos laughs, and Seb joins in.

“Wow, so kind of you,” he says, rolling his eyes although the smile is still spread across his face. “I’m kidding, I don’t even begin to compare to Gina and some of the ensemble. I would kill to be able to move so easily like that.”

“I think you’re doing fine, considering your lack of dance training,” Carlos says, and now it’s Seb’s turn to hit him with a pillow. “Although…” he starts as he considers how this idea will go over with Seb. “If you wanted to, I could give you dance lessons? Like before school or something?”

He’s expecting Seb to reject the idea or come up with excuses. Instead, the other boy's eyes light up and he props himself up on his elbows. “Really?” he asks excitedly, and Carlos sits up straighter.

“I mean yeah, if you genuinely want to improve and you want extra time practicing,” he says with a smile. “We could do once a week, or non-rehearsal days, whatever is best for you!”

“Non-rehearsal days would actually be perfect!”

“So do you want to start this Friday?” Carlos asks since that would be their closest non-rehearsal day. “Maybe, like, 7:00? Gives us about half an hour before homeroom. Or is that too early?”

Seb shakes his head. “I’m up every morning at 5:30 in the morning anyway, so 7 works fine for me!” he smiles.

Carlos smiles back before he processes what Seb had just said. “Geez, 5:30? That’s so early,” he says disgustedly. 

The way Seb laughs makes his head spin, and suddenly Carlos doesn’t know how he’s going to be able to survive private rehearsals in a few days. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOMECOMING IS NEXT Y'ALL HOPE UR READY!  
> follow my tumblr (@klainiac) & twitter (@SE3LOS) for more :) <3


	5. well, are you busy tonight?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"now im standing miles high_  
>  _like castles in the sky"_  
>  —born to be brave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy pride!!! ur all so valid and wonderful i hope you enjoy this chapter <3  
> i love homecoming so much. lets just say i cried over this episode at least 3 times while writing this.  
> tw // mention of animal death

It’s Friday, which means it’s another early morning dance lesson with Seb. So far they have had two together: the last Friday when Carlos first mentioned it, and the previous Tuesday.

Seb had definitely been improving, nearly nailing the entire ‘Bop to the Top’ choreo. They had decided to practice that song more outside of rehearsals because they practiced ‘Stick to the ‘Status Quo’ more often in rehearsal. Carlos was constantly running around that he would never be able to assist any time Rico and Seb ran ‘Bop to the Top’ during that time unless he was teaching them something new.

The few glimpses Carlos was able to get from Seb during rehearsal, though, it seemed like he was struggling every time. It was strange since Seb had been doing well in their private rehearsals, but it became very apparent to both Seb and Carlos that Rico was having trouble leading. Carlos at one point considered inviting Rico to the private rehearsals but decided against. He might in the future, but for now… it was just nice to spend time alone with Seb even if it was just for the show.

Today, though. Today was different, and for one reason only.

 _Homecoming_.

Seb had been telling Carlos and Natalie that Wednesday during lunch about how Nini didn’t want to go to homecoming anymore because she had no one to go with, and that’s when it hit him. He had no idea if Seb was planning on going to homecoming, but maybe, _maybe_ this was his chance to finally ask him out. Or, at least ask him to the dance. _Same thing though, right?_

He recalled the conversation he had with Ashlyn over FaceTime the previous night about possibly asking Seb to homecoming. Of course, she was 100% behind it, but Carlos still had doubts, even with her constant assurance that Seb almost definitely liked him back.

 _“I see the way he watches you during rehearsal”,_ Ashlyn had told him, which had also made Carlos immediately blush like crazy. _“If our choreographer was anyone else, there’s no way he would voluntarily go to school early.”_

 _“He already wakes up at 5:30 in the morning, though. He’s passionate about dance and performance, maybe he just genuinely wants to improve!”_ he had countered with.

 _“I’m sure he does, Carlos but I don’t know if he would have accepted so quickly if it didn’t mean hanging out with someone he likes,”_ Ashlyn had explained, which earned her an eye roll from him. _"I love you, but you’re crazy. Why are you trying to deny it anyway?”_

That comment had left Carlos wordless. Honestly, he didn’t know why he kept deflecting the possibility of Seb liking him. He knew what Ash was saying was probably true, but that little bit of uncertainty was holding him back from telling Seb the things he wanted to. It was the first time he had met someone passionate about the same things he was, and he so easily clicked with. He didn’t want to go and ruin that. 

And yet, every moment he shared with Seb felt real. The looks, the conversations, and subtle touches, it was like they were both holding back from something.

Carlos didn’t want to hold back anymore. 

Their rehearsal ran as normal, once again running through the same dance sequence. Seb had nearly perfected it at this point with Carlos, but maybe that was only because he had both sides of this choreo memorized front to back. That’s why dancing with Seb was nice; he never had to think too much about how close the two of them were together or what to do if either of them messed up. This was his field, and not even a cute boy and his cute smile, riffing, and commentary, while they rehearsed, could take away from that.

“You’re improving,” Carlos grins when they sit down together after ending because he _is._

“Am I?” 

“Yeah. At least, with me you are. You seem to still be struggling a bit during rehearsal.”

Seb blushes, and Carlos hopes what he said wasn’t shady (he didn’t mean for it to be, of course.) Thankfully, though, Seb keeps talking.

“I mean, I don’t get it. When I dance with you it’s easy. When I dance with Ryan, I’ve got two left feet.”

“You just gotta drill it, Seb,” he tells him with a laugh, although he wonders if Seb’s phrasing was intentional. Does he mean during rehearsal in general, or does he mean it’s hard as Sharpay and Ryan, but not as Seb and Carlos?

“I mean, I practice for like an hour every night in our barn!” Seb defends. “My parents think I’m bonding with the livestock.” He leans over slightly as he says it, looking Carlos right in the eye. They both laugh, but it makes his stomach flutter all the same.

Seb then gets up, placing his water bottle back into his backpack as he prepares to pack up for the first period. “I need more practice with someone who… actually knows how to lead.”

It confuses him at first because Carlos thought that was what they _were_ doing. The way Seb says it almost implies something more though, and he wonders if this might be him trying to drop a hint. Either way, hint or no hint, Carlos decides in that few seconds he has that this is his moment. 

He stands up too, taking a deep breath. “Well, are you busy tonight?”

“Tonight?” Seb asks, and Carlos curses himself internally at the genuine confusion from Seb. Of _course,_ it wasn’t a hint, it was just Seb being _Seb_. 

He decides to go with it anyway. _Too late now._ “Yeah, y’know, homecoming.”

Seb’s expression is blank for a moment, but Carlos holds his smile, _praying_ that the universe will just _give him this_. 

And, apparently, the universe was listening, because a smile grew on Seb’s face. “You mean, like, you and I… dancing together… in front of like all the non-theatre kids?”

The emphasis he put on each word really solidified the idea in Carlos's mind, making his stomach flutter again. The idea of him and Seb slow dancing together not for rehearsal but just because they could was almost too much to handle.

"As far as I know, that’s how homecoming works. This would be my first time going” he says, and he hopes Seb won’t back out now. 

Seb turns around and finishes zipping up his backpack, and Carlos feels like he really messed up. He wants to apologize for making him uncomfortable or getting the wrong message. Before he can get the words out of his mouth, and after the longest 10 seconds of Carlos's life, Seb turns back around. This time, his grin is impossible to miss.

“Text me a pic of what you’re wearing,” he says, eyeing Carlos for a moment before walking out of the room.

Carlos feels like his heart might explode. Seb had just agreed to go to homecoming with him.

It all seems too good to be true.

* * *

And maybe it was because almost 3 hours into the dance and Seb still hasn’t shown up. No text, no apology. 

Nothing.

He should have known.

Carlos feels numb. _He should have known._ All day, he had a sick feeling, but he blamed it on nerves. When he had gotten to the dance and Seb wasn’t there, he tried not to think too much of it. Even when Gina showed up with EJ as her date, he tried not to think about it. But they were too far in, now, for this Seb to be late or for this to be an accident.

Of _course,_ Seb was too good to be true. How could he fathom the idea that someone like Seb could actually like him? Just when he thought that his personality and his passions might not be too much to handle, the one person who was able to make him feel that way wasn’t here. Not like Carlos could blame him. 

Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was just Seb being too nervous to dance in front of the majority of the student body. But in that case, wouldn’t he have sent Carlos a text? Or not agreed in the first place? No, he knew what he was getting into. Seb really stood him up.

Ashlyn could see Carlos spiraling. Every time a couple passed them, holding hands or dancing, he sunk deeper into his chair.

“He’ll show up, okay? Maybe he just hit traffic,” she says, putting her hand on his arm in an attempt to comfort him.

Carlos furrows his eyebrows sadly. “We live in Salt Lake City. There hasn’t been traffic since the 2002 Winter Olympics.”

“Don’t assume Seb stood you up, okay? Maybe he was just in a farming accident.”

“Not helping,” Carlos sighs. Even if he’s upset, he doesn’t want him hurt either, obviously. If anything, he wants it to be _his_ fault for his absence, not Seb’s. He’d rather know he ditched him on purpose than being rushed to a hospital right now or something. 

After a few more minutes of sadly staring at his phone while Ashlyn tries to comfort him, as well as more drama between EJ, Gina, and Ricky, Carlos stands up from his chair. He’s tired of moping and tired of dragging down Ash with him. That, plus the awkward quietness from Big Red and EJ after Gina and Ricky left is not the energy he wants to be around anymore.

“I’m gonna go get something to drink. Want anything?” he asks her, who smiles and shakes her head politely. 

A slow song starts to play as Carlos approaches the table, and he tries not to think about how it was one of many that he and Seb could have danced together to.

“What can I get you?” a voice asks, and for once Carlos is thankful that Mr. Mazzara is interrupting his thought process.

“Something wet?”

“Something wrong?” he asks as he prepares the drink.

The question catches him by surprise. “You think I’m actually going to confide in you?” Why does Mr. Mazzara, the person who told him that he needed to find more friends, actually care about why he’s upset?

And oh great, here he goes thinking about Seb again, and that day in the bomb shelter. The day that Carlos realized he had a crush on the boy. The way his heart would skip a beat when Seb grabbed his hand comfortingly when Carlos had told him what Mr. Mazzara had said, and how his stomach fluttered with butterflies from the way Seb looked at him while they sang. How he had called Seb’s overalls that day cute, and the blushy look on his face when he did so. 

Even today in their chemistry class, the two kept looking at each other and smiling instead of doing their lab like they were supposed to. Seb had even whispered “see you tonight” as they left class that day.

It all was too much. Now instead of butterflies in his stomach, it just twisted with painful nausea. 

“I contain multitudes, Carlos.”

Carlos doesn’t say anything for a moment, Instead, he turns back to stare at everyone coupled together on the dance floor. He wants to scream “ _what isn’t wrong?!”_ but he’s still not really sure if Mr. Mazzara actually cares, and honestly he’s so tired by this point of moping over this. This is his first time at homecoming, he’s _supposed_ to feel at home here with everyone dancing. Yet here he is, no idea how to act.

“He didn’t show up,” Carlos says finally. “My date.” Saying those words makes his heart hurt. Carlos wants so badly to not accept it, but there was no more denying it by this point. Seb was his date, and he didn’t show up. He hears Mr. Mazzara let out a small “oh” and it just makes him laugh sadly. 

“It’s my fault. I’m the fool who thought he’d actually dance in public with me,” he explains, shaking his head because _it doesn’t matter._ Not anymore, anyway. 

“Well, the night’s not over.” Carlos turns back around, and Mr. Mazzara is holding out the plastic cup of punch. He takes it wordlessly. 

“Look, uh,” Mr. Mazzara starts, barely making eye contact with Carlos, but his voice sounds genuine. “We’ve all seen your moves. You don’t need a dance partner to dance.” With that, he walks over to the other students waiting for a drink, leaving Carlos confused but feeling strangely better.

He stands there for another minute instead of heading back to the table as the slow song that was previously playing comes to an end and the familiar intro notes of one of his favorite songs when he was younger begins to play. Carlos can’t help but stare at the dance floor, the words of his chemistry teacher ringing in his head, but this time he doesn’t mind their presence. 

Nothing is stopping him from walking right onto that dance floor by himself.

And so, with a deep breath, he does.

He gets a few surprised looks as he marches out, but no one is making fun of him, so Carlos closes his eyes as he sways side to side. At first, he imagines Seb dancing with him, but the image disappears in his mind and is just replaced with the music and the lights and all the surrounding noise.

He keeps sort of swaying, although he knows he could _actually_ start to dance. Just being out here though is already making the gutted feeling drain from his body.

It shouldn’t surprise him, honestly. Dance has always been his outlet. But in a way, he feels like he’s taking back a moment that was almost a ruined memory. 

**_'Cuz I was born to be brave_ **

**_I know who I am inside, and I won't apologize_ **

**_Made my mistakes,_ **

**_and they gave me wings to fly to my castle in the sky_ **

The music is pulsing through Carlos's body as he barely registers hearing EJ’s voice, just before he opens his eyes as Ashlyn grabs his arms, beginning to dance with him. He has his eyes open now, and every bad thought he had earlier in the dance was gone from his mind. All he felt was a pure rush of joy as they bounced around together. It was such a quick change Carlos almost felt dizzy.

The more they danced together, the closer everyone else got to the two of them. And yet, not for a moment did Carlos worry that they had malicious intentions. Everyone just seemed so genuinely happy to be in the moment, and the energy is something Carlos has never experienced before. It feels like the same way he feels in the dance studio, but with everyone feeling the exact same as him. It’s nauseating, but Carlos will take this nauseous feeling over the one from earlier.

And then, somehow, at the beginning of the last chorus right after the musical interlude in the song, Carlos found himself in the middle of everyone. It was genuinely surreal the way everyone was pointing at him. For once, it really did feel like he was the star of something. He didn’t need Seb or anyone else to make him feel special, because he _was_. Or, at least at that moment he was. 

He was joyfully exhausted from dancing by the time the song ended. Even with heavy breathing, Carlos couldn’t help but to grin wider than he had all night as Ashlyn pulled him into a hug

“I mean, that was amazing,” she said while she squeezed him, and Carlos really couldn’t stop smiling by this point. 

That is until he noticed something (some _one,_ actually) out of the corner of his eye.

Ashlyn followed his gaze as he stood frozen in place, before squeezing his arm reassuringly as Seb Matthew-Smith crossed the gym floor to meet Carlos.

Neither of them said a word as Seb slowly got closer, although he could see the blonde boy taking it all in. Carlos must not have noticed when Seb walked in. Clearly, he had arrived at some point amidst the song judging by the soft, starstruck look on his face. Either that, or it was the suit Carlos was wearing, which matched perfectly with Seb’s. 

Before he can figure out what to say, Seb talks first. “Looks like I missed a lot,” he says softly, meeting Carlos's eyes. He can’t help but feel his heart leap to his throat at how _happy_ Seb looks. 

“The dance started three hours ago,” Carlos responds in an attempt to ignore the feeling, and he notices how hurt he sounds. He _is_ hurt, and he’s scared for whatever excuse Seb is about to give.

Seb winces a bit. “We lost one of our cows,” he explains.

“You could have texted.”

“We have bad reception at the barn,” Seb says, and he sounds so _desperate_ that Carlos almost wants to cry. He really _did_ want to come. It makes Carlos's chest tighten. 

“I’m really sorry about being so late,” he says, and he’s still looking at Carlos right in the eye. They’re so dark in the dance lighting they almost look black, but he can see the tiny bit of blue reflecting in the light that is searching, _begging_ for his forgiveness on this. 

“I’m really sorry about your cow,” Carlos says finally because he believes it. Maybe he just wants so badly for it to be true, but Seb is here in his matching suit even though they only have an hour left of the dance. He’s here _for Carlos,_ and Carlos can’t just let go of that. After tonight, he _deserves_ a final dance and a happily ever after with the boy he likes. 

“Hey,” Seb smiles, softly taking Carlos's hands, and that nauseous, butterfly feeling is back in his stomach. “At least our ties match.”

They both laugh softly, and Carlos swears Seb glances down at his mouth. It makes Carlos mirror the action, and he considers just leaning in and kissing Seb right there. The jittery energy from the previous song is mostly gone, replaced by the nerves from being around Seb, and he’s reminded that he’s in the middle of the gym surrounded by their entire class. 

Instead, he leads the other boy to the center of the dance floor, pulling him into a slow dance. It’s different from all their private rehearsals. They aren't Sharpay and Ryan here, they’re just Seb and Carlos. His arm is wrapped around Seb, and they’re slowly spinning, just holding each other.

And yeah, he doesn’t need a dance partner to dance. But it’s so much better with one.

* * *

The dance is winding down, and Carlos is just basking in the past hour that he did get with Seb. They made the most of it, not sitting down until the last 15 minutes and instead dancing to each song that came, whether it was slow or fast, and pulling Ashlyn, Big Red, and even EJ out to join them. Whether it was the lasting effects of ‘Born to be Brave’ or dancing with Seb, or heck, even the words of Mr. Mazzara, Carlos wasn’t for a moment embarrassed or anxious about what he was doing. He just danced.

They ended up back at the table as the crowd dispersed and people slowly began to leave. Carlos was tired, sure, but he was sitting next to Seb and they were holding hands and talking to Ashlyn and Big Red and EJ. He kind of didn’t want this night to ever end.

Carlos's phone buzzes with a notification, and he pulls it out of his pocket to check it with his free hand. He’s expecting it to be a text from his mother asking about the dance and when he would be home, so it surprises him when he’s met with multiple texts under Seb’s contact name. (Especially considering Seb’s phone is sitting in front of him on the table, and he hasn’t touched it since they sat down a few minutes ago.) He swipes open the notifications nonetheless though.

The first two texts are a response to the photo Carlos took in the mirror in his suit. 

**From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _oh wow_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _you look great! :) & i think i have something that matches perfectly! <3 _

It makes Carlos bite his lip as he tries to hide his smile, though he can feel his cheeks burning. He continues to scroll through the texts. The next few are clearly distressed, and Carlos can imagine that’s when Seb realized he would be late.

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _carlos im so sorry i might be a bit late. georgies favorite cow died and she was supposed to be my ride but she’s taking it hard._

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _parents are dealing with the cow, josie is watching isaac, so im trying to convince cohyn rn to drive me. im so so sorry_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _i dont know if youre getting any of these but i really hope you are_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _carlos i get it if youre mad but please respond if youre getting these_

Carlos's heart hurts for past-Seb. He’s so absorbed in reading them that he doesn’t even notice the blonde glancing over at him curiously.

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _just call me troy bolton bc im so late you shouldnt forgive me but im really hoping you will_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _im serious though. im on my way right now._

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _save me a dance?_

“What are you smiling at?” Seb asks, and Carlos looks up in surprise to see the other boy studying him with soft eyes. He doesn’t seem concerned, just genuinely curious. 

Carlos flips around the screen so Seb can see. “Your messages finally came through,” he smiles, and Seb’s cheeks flush as he reads them.

“I just kept trying to resend them the entire way over and I guess they finally decided to,” he explains. “Remind me to never panic-text you ever again.”

“Please,” Carlos squeezes his hand. “It’s cute.”

Before Seb can come up with a reply, Ashlyn interrupts. “Glad to see there are no hard feelings,” she grins, looking between them, and the two of them blush, as they realize that she, Big Red, and EJ witnessed the entire conversation. Well, kind of. EJ is more concentrated on his phone, and Big Red just looks lost.

“Yeah,” Carlos is smiling softly, now matched with Seb, and he squeezes his hand again. “I don’t want it to be over yet.”

Ashlyn shrugs. “Who says it has to.”

If she didn’t have their attention yet she does now. 

“What do you mean?” Carlos asks, tone switching from soft to intrigued. They both turned their heads to face Ashlyn.

She shrugs again, this time with a grin. “I mean, it’s not that late,” she says with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “If your parents aren’t expecting you home… anyone up for ice cream?”

Both Seb and Carlos grin at the same time. Even Big Red, who finally seems to have caught on to the tail end of the conversation, looks interested.

“I’m never _not_ up for that,” Carlos says, and Seb nods excitedly.

Big Red bites his lip. “Who’s gonna drive, though?” he asks. “Ricky took my car when he left with Gina, and you guys only have your permits, right?” 

They all look at each other for a minute, before four heads are turning to face EJ, who looks up for his phone when he notices them all staring at him.

“What?” EJ asks, clearly having missed the entire past five minutes of conversation.

Ashlyn tilts her head, still grinning. “Wanna drive us to get ice cream since I’m your favorite cousin?” she asks, although EJ doesn’t look convinced.

“And you end the night on a good note!” Seb adds leaning forward.

Either he actually considers Seb says, or he just feels like he can’t say no to him because _come on, it’s Seb,_ because EJ rolls his eyes and digs his keys out of his pocket.

“Fine,” he says, and the four cheer silently. “But make it quick.”

Seb and Carlos turn to look at each other. _Yeah_ , there’s no way they’re making it quick. 

* * *

The two are sitting on a bench outside of the ice cream shoppe later that night. Ricky came back to get Big Red, since he needed to give his car back, and they had both turned down a ride from Ashlyn and EJ.

Now it was just them.

Carlos really doesn’t want this night to end. Everything that has happened today, even with Seb arriving late, has been built up ever since they started getting close together that day after rehearsal. It’s almost like the feeling of post-show depression. He just feels so safe and happy at this moment with Seb that if he has to leave, he doesn’t know if he’ll ever get this feeling.

But, because he does eventually have to go home (and probably sooner rather than later), and he can see Seb looking very cute as he’s trying to hold back a yawn, Carlos pulls out his phone with his free hand to text his mom to come pick him up.

Oh yeah, they’re holding hands. They basically had been all night, ever since Seb took his hand when he arrived back in the gym of East High. It’s barely been an hour since then, but it’s felt like a lifetime holding Seb’s hand at every moment.

That safety with Seb is what allows him to feel okay holding his hand in public. If they get weird looks or glares, Carlos doesn’t notice. He doesn’t even care what anyone thinks anymore tonight, because he’s here tonight, he’s the and he’s the most himself he’s ever been. Everything is okay. 

And Seb, of course. Seb is okay, too. Better than okay. Seb is _wonderful_. 

“Georgie is on her way if you want us to drive you home,” Seb tells him, and Carlos snaps out of his daydream. He realizes the entire time he’s just been sitting there, staring at his phone and thinking about his hand in Seb’s long enough that the screen has gone dark.

He smiles softly at the blonde. “Yeah, okay,” he says quietly, swiping open his phone again to tell his mom that he’s getting a ride home. 

It’s so quiet around them, the only sound being the employees closing the ice cream shoppe and the few cars pulling out of the lot where the store is located. And yet, it’s a comfortable silence, just the two of them sitting there together, soaking in the last of the night together. 

“I’m glad you didn’t leave before I got there tonight,” Seb tells him, and it breaks Carlos's heart to think how guilty he must feel about what happened.

Carlos squeezes his hand. “I’m glad you were able to show up.”

Seb chews on the edge of his lip, before smiling. It’s different from his usual excited grin, the one that could light up a stage on its own. This one is softer and more genuine like he can’t help it. “Yeah. Me too.”

“And our ties do match,” Carlos laughs quietly, referencing what Seb had said earlier. 

Neither of them say anything. Carlos doesn’t know what else to say. Seb deserves a whole essay, but he doesn’t have enough words to describe the way he makes Carlos feel, like how his chest tightens like his heart is going to explode. Or how it feels like his face is constantly heated near him, but its never uncomfortable. 

Nothing feels uncomfortable around Seb.

Like a natural reflex, his face inches closer to Seb’s. Carlos doesn’t mean to, exactly, but he doesn’t pull away either. And neither does Seb. 

It’s entirely possible that Seb wants to kiss him right now. Carlos thinks he wants to kiss Seb. Honestly, he doesn’t really know. He’s never kissed anyone before; he doesn't know what it would be like or what that feeling is supposed to be. It feels like there’s heat pooling in his stomach, though, and he keeps inching closer. If this isn’t the feeling you get when you want to kiss someone, Carlos doesn’t know what is. 

He’s about to just bite the bullet and lean in all the way when a familiar car pulls into the lot. Before she can see them (or maybe she already has; they’ll find out when they get in the car) they pull away from each other. Both Carlos and Seb are blushing intensely, but Seb still shoots him that same soft smile before they get up to go in the car.

They both greet Georgie, who’s already in her pajamas, including an Ariana Grande shirt that he's pretty sure he's seen her brother wear, shark print pants, and slippers, as well as her hair in two braids. Carlos can’t blame her, to be honest. 

He slides down in his usual seat behind the driver's seat (it’s easier for Seb to be able to face him that way from the passenger's seat.) To Carlos's surprise, though, instead of getting in the front seat like normal, Seb joins him in the backseat. 

“Taking the middle seat, huh, Sebby?” Georgie teases, catching his eye in the rearview mirror. “Usually you’ll do anything to not have to sit there.”

“Yes, because there’s no reason for me to sit in the middle when Paisley and Sophia are so much smaller than me,” Seb argues. “But that’s only when I have to sit next to you. This is different.”

She just hums before pulling out of the lot. “I’m happy to see you two ending the night together, at least.”

Seb’s hand finds Carlos's next to him, and he laces their fingers together. “Yeah,” he says softly, looking at Carlos instead of Georgie. “Us too.” 

Georgie asks a few questions about homecoming, accompanied by the typical car playlist. Carlos answers a few of the questions with Seb, but for the most part, he just sits back and enjoys their last moments together before the weekend. He doesn’t want to think about how he probably won’t get to see the other boy in person again until Monday, considering all their weekend homework mixed with Seb’s chores and Carlos's dance lessons. 

They arrive at Carlos's house what feels like quicker than normal, and he unbuckles his seatbelt reluctantly. 

“Thank you for the ride home,” he tells Georgie, who gives him a two finger salute. Before he can say anything to Seb, the blonde is gesturing for him to go out. “Let me walk you to the door,” he tells Carlos.

As the two walk to the porch, he tries to figure out what else he can say to Seb. Truly, words cannot describe how genuinely magical this night has been. 

“Thank you for everything tonight,” he decides on, facing the other boy as they reach the front of his door. 

“Don’t thank me, Carlos,” Seb says softly, biting his lip, and Carlos allows himself to memorize his face at this moment for the last time.

Just as he’s about to open the door, Seb leans in kissing Carlos softly on the cheek.

“Goodnight, Carlos.”

He ignores the heat rushing to that spot, eyes focused on Seb as he smiles. “Goodnight Seb.”

Seb nods briefly, his smile growing a bit before he turns. He gives Carlos a quick, shy wave before climbing down the steps of the porch and back to Georgie’s car, getting in the passenger seat this time. 

Carlos watches for a moment as they pull out, before turning to open the door. 

His mother is sitting on the couch in the front room as he steps in. Her glasses perched on the edge of her nose, and her hair tied back as she reads a book, the light shining softly from the lamp next to her.

She looks up at Carlos as he walks in. “Good night?”

“Yeah,” Carlos nods. “Amazing. _Buenas noches, mamá._ ”

“ _Buenas noches, mijo_. Get a good sleep, you have an early dance lesson tomorrow.”

He nods, shuffling upstairs. The energy from the night has been accompanied now by exhaustion, and Carlos feels like he’s about to collapse. He forces himself to quickly shower, do his skincare, and brush his teeth before he collapses into his bed.

As he sets his alarm for dance the next morning, he notices a new text notification.

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _tonight was amazing!! do it again sometime? <3_

And even though nobody can see, Carlos smiles to himself 

**From: Carlos Rodriguez:** _yeah, definitely. <3_

Carlos hits send, then turns on his sleep playlist before switching off his phone and plugging it in next to him. 

He’ll talk more to Seb in the morning.

For now, he allows the moment of Seb kissing him to replay in his head. And with that, Carlos falls asleep with the feeling of Seb lips on his cheek.

_It’s great to be in love on Valentine’s Day._


	6. and it’s been a long time since someone gave me a shot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"we used to fall asleep in chemistry class_  
>  _now it makes us want to dance"_  
>  —truth, justice, and songs in our key

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to carlos's (and my) downward spiral  
> shoutout to lily for this one! she keeps distracting me on our "writing" calls and is therefore partially responsible for making this one so late ily <3
> 
> obviously tw // panic attacks for this one as we all remember form the episode. its not super descriptive, but i had to take breaks while writing it so i may as well advise you

Carlos wakes up the following Monday more excited to start the school day than he’s ever been since the first day of freshman year. 

Truly, he hasn’t felt this level of nerves mixed with excitement since he first walked into East High. All that day had brought him anyway was the cruel truth that high school isn’t at all like the movies when you’re an outcast.

Today, though. _Today_ had promise. They had been texting and talking all weekend, but neither had been able to find the time to see each other in person before school. If homecoming was just the start of the new chapter in his and Seb’s relationship, then Carlos couldn’t wait to keep reading. 

He walks into school with a little bit of a quicker pace than usual, anxious to get to the photoshoot for the cover of their playbill for the show. He wasn’t close to Kourtney or anyone else on the costumes committee, so he hadn’t able to worm anything out of them about the outfits. Whatever Seb was wearing was going to be a total surprise (for both of them) and he couldn’t be more excited.

However, when Carlos got to the auditorium, he didn’t see Seb or Miss Jenn. In fact, the only person he actually saw was Big Red, who was holding a camera.

“Where is everyone?” Carlos asked him.

“Kourtney is with the rest of costumes and makeup helping everyone get changed, and, uh,” he glances around. “I don’t actually know where Miss Jenn is.”

 _Huh._ “Oh, okay. I’ll go find her, I guess,” he said, turning on his heel back out of the auditorium and down the hall towards Miss Jenn’s office. _Maybe she had forgotten?_

As he approached the room, he heard voices coming from inside. One was definitely Miss Jenn’s, and the other was… the principal? He tried not to think anything of it before sticking his head through the doorframe.

“Good morning, Miss Jenn!” he said cheerfully, “You coming to the photoshoot?”

She looked surprised to see him, although honestly not more stressed than normal. (That woman seriously needed a spa day or something, she seemed stressed out 90% of the time.) 

“You go ahead and get started without me, Carlos,” she told him with a smile.

That got rid of some of Carlos’s nerves, but only replaced them with different ones about being in charge. It never really seemed to go well for him whenever Miss Jenn left him alone with the group. This was just a photoshoot though, not like him trying to run the entire rehearsal without her. 

“Okay!” he said, then headed back to the auditorium. Hopefully, he hasn’t missed anyone’s costume reveal yet.

Thankfully, the only person who seemed to be in costume already was Rico (who’s Ryan costume looked suspiciously like a Newsie, but who is he to judge.) Natalie and Kourtney have also made their way onto center stage, which means the rest of the actors are probably coming out at any second.

Carlos gathers the two of them plus Big Red to discuss the plan for the photoshoot Natalie brings out her clipboard, reminding each of them of their roles. It’s honestly a dream to see another student in charge besides just him. 

“Okay, that sounds like a plan!” he tells them once Natalie finishes explaining because he still has to take _some_ initiative. 

Carlos then watches as the actors begin to file in. He has to applaud them, the costumes are pretty spot on from the movie. Although, Ricky’s wig could use a little bit of work, no matter how hilarious it is to see him look more like Shaggy from _Scooby Doo_ than Troy.

When Seb steps out from the opposite side of the stage, though, all of his attention is on the blonde boy as Carlos has to keep his mouth from dropping open.

He’s wearing a simple pink t-shirt and some acid washed jeans (cuffed, of course) as well as a few bracelets, which are paired holographic sneakers- _platform heeled_ sneakers. They make him a good few inches taller than Carlos (not that he minds, of course.) And not to mention the glittery vest he has over the pink shirt, matching Sharpay’s audition outfit from the movie. 

And then the _makeup-_ Carlos doesn’t even know how to _begin_ to describe the eyeshadow, but whatever Kourtney has done is _genius._ It’s a mix of pinks, oranges, and yellows that covers most of his left eye and stretches out into his hair, which is also matched with a pink stripe. His hair has also been combed upwards in a higher fringe than usual, sprayed in place with glitter hair spray (how he’s going to get that out, Carlos has no idea.) And he’s _pretty_ sure he’s wearing a light shade of pink lipstick. 

After a moment, though Carlos realizes that Seb’s eyes are wide, and he isn’t necessarily giving a positive reaction. Even though he wants to run into Seb’s arms right now, he keeps his calm as the boy approaches.

“Hey,” he offers softly. “You okay with this?”

“I don’t know how to say it.”

“Just say it,” Carlos says after a moment, still searching Seb’s face for some sign of a good (or bad) emotion.

Seb is quiet, like he’s trying to find the right words, before his face breaks out in a smile. He leans towards Carlos, softly saying “I’m home.”

Carlos feels that tug in his chest again as he matches Seb’s movement, leaning forward and placing his hands on Seb’s shoulder as the two giggle a bit. He’s so close to the other boy, and they’re both jittery with excitement for the show and to see each other again.

He wants nothing more right now than to drag Seb away with him to behind the curtains and away from the photoshoot. But they _do_ actually have to get this done, and Carlos _does_ have to take charge. He allows Seb to go find as his place and retreats next to Big Red, as everyone begins to get in line.

“Okay guys, we’re gonna get one in for practice, okay?” Big Red calls once everyone is settled and ready to go.

They line up like the original album as he calls “we’re all gonna jump on the count of three, ready?”

Carlos is preparing himself for this to be an easy, one-shot take. Unfortunately, because it's _this_ cast, he quickly realizes it’s not going to be that simple as Big Red counts up to the first photo. Half of them jump on 2, some jump on 3, and he’s pretty sure Nini and EJ don’t even jump until after Big Red finishes counting. Not to mention Kourtney was still adjusting EJ’s costume, resulting in her running in front of the camera. 

“One, two, three!” Red tries again, although it still seems to end with the same result, as well as the “L” in “musical” on the sign behind them falling off.

_How the heck did they do this in the movies?_

“Wait, what happened?” Big Red asks.

Ricky sighs. “Where to begin?”

“I think you went early,” Seb tells him. 

Gina looks between them before turning to Red and asking “are we jumping on three or after three?” 

“Yeah, the count of three. Ready?” Red tells her.

Ricky shakes his head. “Nah, man, you need some new words.”

Meanwhile, Seb is leaning down to massage his ankle. “I think I broke a heel!” he tells them. (In hindsight, it probably wasn’t their best idea to have him jump while wearing platform shoes.)

“You guys, this isn’t that hard,” Carlos sighs. He can already feel a headache coming on. “You smile, you leave the earth, you land!”

“It’s a little hard to smile when we don’t even know the plan,” Ricky tells him, and _okay, that stung a little bit._ He desperately wants Miss Jenn to magically show up to fix all this. 

“I can’t look at Ricky, is that a problem?” Nini asks, and obviously, it’s a joke, but Carlos’s head is pounding. He just wants everything to _work_ for once. His excited mood from the morning has already disappeared. 

He sighs while the others laugh at what Nini says. “Okay, let's take a five,” he says, although more for himself than anyone else.

“On five or after five?” Ricky asks, walking off. Even though it’s a joke, his tone is a lot less playful than Nini’s.

“I think he’s mad at us,” Seb says softly, less confident than before as he glances over at Carlos. He honestly can’t tell if Seb is joking too or if he’s genuinely concerned about Ricky being mad. (Knowing Seb, it could really go either way.)

Everyone had already begun to disperse after Ricky walked off, but Seb takes a moment before he makes his way over to Carlos after the break is called.

“Hey,” he says as he approaches, the same soft tone that he had used with the comment about Ricky. “Are you okay?”

Carlos lets out a long sigh, closing his eyes and tilting his head back. “Honestly it feels like the entire world has been put on my shoulders,” he says, letting them drop. “Or, at least, the East High theatre world.”

Seb grabs his hands (thank god Ashlyn isn’t here.) “It’s just a photoshoot,” he says. 

Coming from anyone else it would have made Carlos feel stupid and belittled, but because it’s _Seb…_ well, like he’s said before. Seb never makes him feel anything like that. 

“I know, I just,” he trails off. He doesn’t even know why he feels this way. It’s like something inside his body refuses to let him relax over this. “Nobody listens to me, and I don’t know where Miss Jenn is, and I don’t know what to do anymore.”

“They were just making jokes, though. It wasn’t anything against you,” Seb furrows his eyebrows.

He sighs again. “I know, it’s more than that though. Like, in rehearsals too. Nobody has any respect for me, which, _whatever,_ but it’s hard to get stuff done, y’know?” He doesn’t know how to explain it well, and he’s really hoping his venting doesn’t upset Seb.

Thankfully, Seb doesn’t seem too affected by it. Instead, he just squeezes Carlos’s hands softly. “They still respect you, Los. _We_ still respect you.”

Carlos just responds with a soft “okay” because, honestly, he doesn’t totally believe Seb. Everyone treats _him_ like he’s the nicest, most wonderful person in the world. Truly, he _is,_ so Carlos shouldn’t compare. But it’s hard when at the same time they all act like Carlos is just there as Miss Jenn’s more annoying and underqualified assistant. 

It definitely wasn’t the Monday morning he was hoping for it to be an hour ago. 

“Hey, Seb, can you come help?” Red calls a second later, as he attempts to set up a ladder to fix the “L.”

“I’m gonna-”

“Yeah, go,” Carlos tells him. “I’ll go round up everyone; we should probably get back to the photoshoot.”

He doesn’t really want to leave Seb’s side, (and he should really be the one helping with the ladder, because, _come on, three points of contact Seb!_ If Red wanted him though, he would have asked for him, not Seb.) Unfortunately, though, he Gina and EJ in a pretty heated conversation off to the side, and he’s not sure if it’s going to end anytime soon.

“Guys?” he says cautiously as he approaches.

They both ignore him, of course.

EJ continues the conversation instead. “So, do you care about Ricky?”

“And what if I do?” 

“Um, guys?” Carlos says again. He really didn’t need (or want) to hear this conversation. He just needs to get them back to finish the photoshoot, and _then_ they can hash out whatever this is. 

“Not now!” they tell him at the same time. Immediately, he ducks his head and walks out. On a normal day, it wouldn’t even get a reaction from him, but it’s just the _iron_ y of the situation. Whatever Seb thought he saw in the other students was wrong, and unsurprisingly so.

By the time he gets out into the hallway, his throat is tight and his entire face is on fire. Carlos has to force himself to take a few calming breaths, reminding himself that it’s not personal and he’s just having a bad morning.

Once he’s calm again, he pulls out his phone and dials Miss Jenn’s number. She picks up on the very last ring.

“Miss Jenn, I don’t think I can stall much longer,” he says as he makes his way down the hallway, trying to keep his voice level. “Are you coming?”

“Carlos, I was just about to call you!” she responds. It sounds promising, but the tightness in her voice tells him otherwise.

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, except that I may be out of a job in 24 hours.”

 _Okay, great, time to panic._ “Miss Jenn, I can’t see your face, so I don’t know if you’re kidding- oh my god!” Carlos says as she approaches with a box under her arm. He can easily recognize the contents of her office in it after weeks of meetings together and eating lunch in the room. 

_Okay, time to_ really _panic._

“Keep your voice down, honey,” she whispers as she slides her phone into the box.

“What happened?” he asks, definitely not keeping his voice down.

“Carlos, I may have exaggerated one or two credits on my resume,” Miss Jenn explains. “Principal Gutierrez is a little too literal for my taste, but here we are.”

“Where’s ‘here’?”

She ignores him, _(what else is new,)_ and instead continues. “The important thing is you keep this train on the tracks. Hopefully, everything will be cleared up when I sit before the school board tomorrow, okay?”

“Wait, what?” _No, not okay._

“Keep rehearsal on after school today and don’t speak a word of this to anyone,” her voice lowers even more, as she glances around in case of any roaming theatre kids. “In the theater, morale is everything.”

Before Carlos can say anything else, there are footsteps behind them as Principal Gutierrez approaches. 

“Miss Jenn, if you would,” he says, gesturing down the hallway. She ducks her head, turning to exit the school.

“Miss Jenn, wait!” he calls after her. How was he supposed to take charge of an entire rehearsal if he couldn’t even correctly take charge of a photoshoot?

She turns back around for a moment to face Carlos. “Trust the process,” she tells him with a reassuring smile, although he doesn’t feel reassured at all. 

With that, she turns on her heel again, leaving Carlos lost and confused in the middle of the hallway.

As if on cue from sensing his negative mood, his phone dings in his back project with a text notification from Seb. 

**From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _are you okay :( ??_ _we just finished the photoshoot... big red and natalie took over after you ran out._

Carlos pockets his phone without answering. 

* * *

He feels bad for ignoring Seb all day, he really does.

He wasn’t totally giving him the silent treatment of course. And he appreciates that Seb feels like he has to care enough to ask Carlos if he’s okay during lunch, and _again_ during chem, but it’s hard to lie to him.

He wants more than anything to vent to Seb because he knows the blonde is too polite to tell him to stop. Miss Jenn had _specifically_ told him not to tell anyone, which meant that he either had to lie or stop answering Seb’s questions.

Carlos was able to redirect the conversation during lunch, changing the topic from how he was feeling to discussing the school’s vegetarian options (or lack thereof) with Seb. Then during chem, he just acted like he really needed to learn how to convert grams to moles which involved ignoring Seb. Saying nothing was easier than both lying and telling the truth since _technically_ he wasn’t doing either. 

Seb seemed to back off a little after that, thankfully, although Carlos was hoping he wasn’t getting the wrong idea. _Geez, why did this have to be so complicated?_

Eventually, after an entire day of hoping that the last bell would never ring or some freak storm would hit SLC so they wouldn't be able to put on rehearsal, Carlos is forced to make the dreaded walk down the hallway to the bomb shelter. He can feel his phone in his backpack vibrating with one last text notification from Seb, probably asking where Carlos is, but he ignores it once more.

He stops at Miss Jenn’s office, hoping that by some miracle she had returned. Instead, he was just met with an empty room with only the desk and chairs remaining, ridden of everything inside that gave it it’s personality.

Carlos ends up getting to the bomb shelter about 5 minutes after they’re meant to start. Everyone is already antsy as they await instruction, which is not the best energy for him to start with. He pretends not to see Seb by the piano with Nini as he walks in. _They’re probably talking about him._

Even with every bone in his body telling him to turn around and walk out of the school, he pushes forward and begins rehearsal.

“Okay, people!” he announces, faking a laugh as he tries (and fails) to capture Miss Jenn’s energy. “Let’s stage a number! I’m late!”

“Is Miss Jenn coming?” Nini asks.

 _So much for pretending not to see them._ “Miss Jenn had a small personal matter to attend to and won’t be here today,” Carlos tries to explain as vaguely as possible.

“Oh. Is everything alright?”

“Good question,” Seb adds.

“Everything is fine,” Carlos forces a smile. “Why would you guys even ask that?”

He turns to grab his binder. More than anything, he wants to scream with his entire body that _no, nothing is alright,_ but for Miss Jenn’s sake, he just keeps going. _That’s showbiz, baby._

Of course, today is the day that he’s supposed to stage the boldest concept of the show. He came up with it when he was watching the movie, and it kind of mirrors it in a way he thinks is clever. Part of him knows that the idea sells itself when people realize that, but another part of him is already preparing for backlash.

“Okay, Gabriella, I need you downstage on this mark,” Carlos says, grabbing Nini’s hands and pulling her in front of the boxes he had Red set up. He could feel her hesitancy, but he ignored it as he continued. “Troy, stage right, Chad, stage left box. Other boys find a box” he instructed.

It was admittedly kind of fun to direct them around and see his concept come to life. Plus, nobody had said anything yet. _Maybe this would work out._

That feeling lasted for about a few seconds, though, as Nini’s voice cut in right when he was ready to start. 

“Uh, are they going to be on stage with me while I’m singing?” 

“Yes,” Carlos says, turning to face her. “They will be frozen in various poses to come as the ballad builds. Nini, you will be wandering through a forest of boys,” he explains. It actually gives him a little more confidence in the concept in doing so, reassuring him that maybe his idea wasn’t as overly bold as he originally thought. 

“Wait, what? What does that mean?” she asks. 

Or, maybe not.

“Do you know what a forest of trees looks like?” he asks.

“I do,” Nini says, raising her eyebrows, and Carlos curses at himself internally. He was trying to make it sound dumb so she would stop asking questions, but now _he_ feels dumb.

“Okay, but with boys,” he says, trying to shake the feeling. 

Nini laughs, but there's no humor behind it. “I’m sorry, why?”

“Because your heart has just been shattered, and you can’t stop thinking about how amazing Troy is,” he explains, refusing to let his voice shake. His heart is already beating quicker then normal, and if anyone else questions him, Carlos might break.

He turns and points at Seb (whose expression has remained blank.) “Let’s go.”

Seb spins on the piano bench and starts playing the beginning of the ballad, and Carlos lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. The sooner they start this rehearsal from hell, the sooner they can end it.

Until Nini’s voice cuts through _again._

“Ah, I’m sorry, but at this point in the show Troy just sold me out to his teammates,” she says.

Carlos wants to reply with “ _yes, I watched the movie too, and probably more than you have. The song is about him and how she can’t stop thinking about him even when she’s angry.”_ Before he can get a word out, though, Ashlyn adds on. 

“She’s got a point. What Troy did was kind of unforgivable,” she agrees. “Respectfully, Carlos, I think the last thing anyone wants in this moment is four more versions of him.” 

(It hurts to hear that coming from _Ashlyn_ of all people, who was one of the only people he really considered a friend. Is it still respectful if she’s totally dissing his idea? _Where is Gina’s input when he needs it?)_

“Maybe she can chop down the trees,” Natalie says.

“Or, what if she’s surrounded by a forest of loving and supportive sisters?” Kourtney suggests, which immediately gets more positive feedback than any of Carlos’s choreography ideas. Hearing everyone critique one of the only parts of the show Miss Jenn allowed him to block by himself feels like a stake through his heart. 

His chest is tight, his breathing is getting more rapid, and he’s rubbing his hands together to stop them from sweating and trembling too much. If Miss Jenn was here, this wouldn’t happen, right? Or is he not qualified enough to be a choreographer, much less a director.

Carlos doesn’t know which option hurts more.

“Is it better if she just does a solo acoustic version?” Ricky calls out.

_No, no, no!_

He’s definitely getting more upset now, which leads to him getting more panicked. 

He hears Gina say “I vote for that!” which is his last bit of hope for some defense going down the drain— Seb is still sitting at the piano, looking confused and overwhelmed at everything, clearly not making any move to defend Carlos either.

All the anger, and sadness, and unworthiness, and every other negative emotion are welling up inside him, and Carlos can’t hold it in anymore.

So, he snaps.

“Okay, you guys! This is not a democracy!” he yells, and immediately the room goes quiet. He feels his face heat up as people exchange looks of surprise mixed with offense, which doesn’t feel fair. It’s not like the entire cast was ganging up on _them._

“Carlos, are you okay?” Nini asks.

(Always the first to speak. Always the first to defend herself, and push away Carlos in doing so. Why don’t people listen to him like they do to her? Because she’s older? Because she’s the lead? Because everyone loves her? Because she’s not the 15 year old Mexican gay kid who will always be an outsider and is just trying his best?)

_(Maybe Mr. Mazzara had a point...)_

“‘Cuz it’s not that deep. We can just come back when Miss Jenn gets here,” she continues, and Carlos wants to roll his eyes and cry at the same time. If it’s not that deep, why don’t they just go along with it? And what part about _“small, personal matter to attend to and won’t be here today”_ do they not get?

It’s all too much, and Carlos is at his breaking point.

“Well, she’s not here, and I don’t know if she’s ever coming back,” Carlos says before he can stop himself.

Once again, everyone goes quiet as the energy in the room shifts.

“Wait, what?” Ricky asks.

“Is this a joke?” Ashlyn adds on. (Carlos could only wish.)

He has the attention of the room now, though, and he knows there's no way he’s getting out of this without telling them the whole story.

“She’s in deep trouble, you guys,” he says, closing his eyes, although not before seeing people stand up and crossing their arms, expressions demanding an explanation.

“They’re saying that she lied on her job application, and there’s a school board meeting in less than 24 hours, and she’s probably going to lose her job,” he explains, opening his eyes but avoiding contact. 

“I was supposed to tell any of you, but,” he pauses, struggling how to put this nicely without totally breaking down. “I am _trying_ to do my best here,” his voice comes out hard and unforgiving. _He already broke his promise with Miss Jenn, what else do they want from him?_

Nini’s the first to speak, again. “I can’t believe it,” she says quietly, going to sit next to a surprised Seb.

“What are we even doing in rehearsal?” EJ asks.

“Wait, how can we have a show if we don’t have a teacher?” Ashlyn cuts in.

Seb leans forward off the piano bench, speaking for the first time since the beginning of this mess. “You know you could have told me,” he says. He’s searching Carlos’s face with worry written across his own.

That clears the red in front of Carlos’s eyes for a moment. Even when he’s upset, at least he has Seb to ground him.

“Miss Jenn asked me not to,” he tells Seb softly, hinting at an apology in his voice.

“Wow, Carlos, what else are you not telling us?” Ej asks, reminding Carlos that _he can’t win._ He tries to help and do what he’s told, and they get upset. He explains what’s going on, and they blame him for it. 

He wants Miss Jenn back, too, (arguably more than anyone else,) but how is he supposed to fix that on his own?

“Hey, let’s all breathe for a second,” Ashlyn says, only for Natalie to cut her off.

“Do _you_ want to be in charge?” she asks.

“She didn’t say that,” Kourtney defends. 

All the arguing makes Carlos want to yell again, but whenever he goes to open his mouth, the words get caught in his throat, and someone else talks over him.

“You know what?” Nini asks, standing up and grabbing her backpack. “I, um, I need a minute,” she says, slinging the bag over her shoulder and walking out of the bomb shelter.

“Right there with you,” Kourtney follows, twirling her finger as if to round up everyone in the room.

“Honestly, same,” Ashlyn says, and Carlos can feel her unenthusiasm and discontent digging into his skin.

He can hear Gina saying “wait” over and over again as Natalie calls “guys, wait!” There’s no use, though, and after a moment they pick up their bags as well. Even Seb rushes to pack up his music folder.

And Carlos can’t do anything but stand there and watch as his world crumbles.

“I’m sorry, Carlos,” Natalie tells him as she walks out.

“Rehearsals are officially canceled until further notice,” he finally calls out after them, before throwing his hands up and exiting out the back entrance of the room. 

He gets all the way to the parking lot until he realizes he left his backpack in the bomb shelter.

Carlos walks back in, but when he gets to the room, he finds Gina and Ricky still inside. 

He wants nothing more than to just get his backpack and start walking home, (Seb usually drives him on Mondays since his mom works late, which was another thing Carlos had been looking forward to today, but it seems he already left,) but he _really_ doesn’t want to interact with them right now. Instead, he hangs around outside the room, leaning against a wall as he waits for them to finish.

Just when he’s contemplating sucking it up and walking into the room _(we get it, Ricky, you can sing and play guitar and everybody is in love with you,)_ he sees a familiar face headed his way, and decides to strike up a conversation.

“Benjamin Mazzara,” he calls out, stopping the STEM teacher in his tracks. He must have been stepping out to get something for the robotics team because he’s clutching a robot in his hand and seems eager to not be interrupted.

 _Too late._

Mr. Mazzara looks surprised to see Carlos actually addressing him to his face after always ducking his head every time the teacher passes. “Carlos…. Surname.”

(Carlos has been in his class for two years, and he’s pretty sure he’s the only Rodriguez in their entire school. How hard is it for him to remember?)

“I assume you know what’s happening to Miss Jenn?” he confronts.

Mr. Mazzara starts walking away as he talks, and Carlos follows. “I may have heard a rumor in the faculty lounge.”

“And I assume you’re happy?”

“Not on the outside.” Carlos has to try to not roll his eyes when the teacher says that. _Alright, angst king._

“Look, everyone has fudged on a resume before,” he says. That’s practically what a resume _is._

 _“I_ haven’t,” Mr. Mazzara points out, and this time Carlos can’t help it when his eyes roll.

“The real question is, who narked on Miss Jenn.”

“Wait,” Mr. Mazzara stops at the end of the hallway, turning to face Carlos, his eyebrows raised. “Are you suggesting I had something to do with this?”

“Are you admitting that you did?” Carlos presses.

“Of course not.” _Yeah, right. As if he hasn’t had it out for both of them since day one._

“Look, kid,” he continues. “Has it occurred to you that Miss Jenn is responsible for her own untimely demise?”

With that, he turns on his heel and continues down the hall, leaving Carlos planted in place, dumbfounded for the second time today. _Seriously, does that guy ever speak like a normal person?_

He wants to follow Mr. Mazzara and bug him more, but he can hear Ashlyn and EJ’s voices coming from that hallway. Instead, he retreats back to the bomb shelter.

Thankfully, Gina and Ricky are gone by the time Carlos reaches it, judging by the absence of Ricky’s guitar that was previously reverberating throughout the surrounding halls.

Carlos walks through the door, ready to grab his backpack before starting his walk home, and is instead greeted with Seb staring sadly at the piano.

“I thought you went home already,” Carlos says as he enters, and Seb’s head snaps up in surprise.

“I thought you did too,” he says hesitantly, although he seems relieved to see Carlos.

Carlos points at his forgotten bag. “I left my backpack in here.”

“Same with my jacket,” Seb says, holding up the article of clothing in question. “And, uh, I was hoping you would come back, which you did.” He glances nervously at Carlos. “I was supposed to drive you home.”

“Right,” Carlos nods. It’s quiet for a few moments, and Carlos really wants to just bolt. He’s blown off Seb too many times today already, though.

Thankfully, Seb breaks the silence. “I am so, so sorry about not defending you in rehearsal,” he bursts out. “It all happened so quick, and I couldn’t keep up or find a good place to cut in, and I could see you getting more stressed. You’re probably angry and don’t want these excuses, but-”

“Seb,” Carlos cuts him off. “You’re okay.” 

Yeah, rehearsal sucked, and there’s a weight in his stomach with everyone’s comments and with about what’s going to go down now that everyone left, but he knows he’s probably better off with Seb supporting him through it rather than holding an unnecessary grudge. 

“So, rehearsal today...” Seb trails, as if he’s reading Carlos’s brain. “Kinda intense.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not every day the entire cast of your dream show gangs up on you,” he says, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

“They didn’t mean-” 

“Yeah, I’m sure they didn’t mean it like that, but it still hurts,” Carlos cuts him off. “Still think they respect me?”

Seb is quiet, clearly taken aback, and Carlos realizes he’s never shown Seb this side of him. The part of him that’s dark and scary and upset all the time. The part of him that keeps him up at night, wondering what went wrong in the day and how he could fix it. The part of him that he pushes away so he doesn’t push people away just like he’s doing right now.

The part of him that never feels good enough. 

It’s out, he can see it, and he knows Seb can too. It’s terrifying to be this vulnerable. Seb hasn’t left yet, though, which means it can’t be _too_ terrifying. 

“I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you, I promise. Usually, people leave after I start venting so I guess once I started and you were still here I couldn’t stop,” Carlos explains as he goes to sit at the piano bench. Thankfully, Seb’s features soften, and he crosses to the other side of the piano and stands next to him.

“I’m just… mad at everything,” he continues, slumping over. “And I’m tired of Miss Jenn just leaving at the drop of a hat and expecting me to be able to just take over when nobody listens to me.”

Seb doesn’t stay anything, but he inches closer to him until his torso is pressing into Carlos. He feels an arm wrap around his shoulders. It doesn’t make sense for a moment because Seb is just casually touchy with everyone, but then...

_Oh._

Carlos sinks down even more, but this time it’s into the hug. It’s not even a full hug, more like Seb pressing his body against Carlos while he just sits there, but it’s the most physically intimate thing he’s received in a long time. 

Somehow, the comfort does more than any words could in the moment. It doesn’t immediately wash away all his worries like his presence at homecoming, but it’s enough for now, and more than enough for Carlos.

Seb drops his arm after a moment, but he doesn’t leave Carlos’s side. He looks up at the blonde boy, who looks like he wants to say something. 

But before he can speak, Carlos’s phone vibrates in his pocket. He pulls it out, and when he sees Miss Jenn’s contact as the notification, he quickly retreats from Seb’s side to read it.

“Is everything okay?” Seb asks as Carlos scrolls through the notification.

“I think so?” he says, switching off his phone and going to grab his phone. “Miss Jenn wants me to meet her at the cafe down the street. She says she has something for me… how am I supposed to interpret that?”

“Maybe it’s good news?” 

“I can only hope,” Carlos laughs shortly.

“Do you want a ride? Georgie is on her way-”

Carlos wants to accept— any excuse to hang out with Seb—but it’s really not that far of a walk, and he wants to get there as soon as possible. “It’s alright, I can walk. Thank you though,” he says smiling at Seb, who seems to take it as an acceptable answer and returns the smile softly.

He's about to exit when a “Carlos!” is called. He turns to face the boy again, who’s holding Carlos’s jacket in his hand.

“You, uh- you forgot your jacket,” he says holding up the discarded item of clothing. 

He smiles again, walking back over. When he goes to take the jacket, though, Seb pulls him into another hug. 

“Good luck!” he says, squeezing Carlos tight before letting him go and holding out the jacket for real this time

“Thank you,” Carlos says, and he doesn’t know if he’s thanking Seb for the jacket or the hug, but either works.

It takes a lot to turn and walk out the doors of the school and towards the cafe rather than run back into Seb’s arms, but he manages to make it to the store. He doesn’t even realize he’s blowing Seb off again until he arrives, but the guilt hits him fast when he realizes he never apologized. Before he steps inside, he pulls out his phone and shoots the boy a quick text. 

**From: Carlos Rodriguez:** _so sorry about ignoring your texts today. i appreciated them, just wasnt in the headspace to answer today with everything_

 **From: Carlos Rodriguez:** _i owe you a coffee or something to make it up to you :)_

He doesn’t think about how flirty it sounds or the fact that he practically asked Seb on a date until it’s sent, but it’s too late now. (Besides, they’re past that point, right?) He wishes he could do more, honestly, but he has to talk to Miss Jenn before he can face Seb again. 

When Carlos walks inside, he sees her sitting at a table. All mushy feelings are immediately forgotten as he runs over to greet the drama teacher.

“Miss Jenn! I was so happy to hear from you!” he says. She smiles and stands up to hug him (what is up with everybody and the hugs today?) which is hopefully a good sign.

“You said you’ve got something for me. Tell me it’s good news,” he begs, and immediately her energy switches.

“It’s complicated,” she says, putting her hands on his shoulders and directing him to the chair. “Please sit.” As he does, he notices the newspaper spread out where she’s circled what looks like job openings. _Okay, not a good sign after all._

“Carlos,” she starts, and he can already feel his heart sinking. “If tomorrow’s board meeting goes the way I think it will, you guys are going to hear a lot of… not great things about me.”

“No, we don’t-” he starts to defend, but she cuts him off.

“It’s all true.”

Carlos furrows his eyebrows. “What is?”

“I never told you guys my real last name because I was embarrassed at how little I’ve actually accomplished,” she says, voice breaking.

Carlos just sits there in silence, still confused and still with a tight chest. It feels the same way he felt when he realized Santa wasn’t real, like the world has suddenly decided he’s old enough to know it’s ugly truth. (And maybe he is old enough, but he’s never going to feel ready.)

“I’m a fake teacher, Carlos,” she admits, voice breaking. “Most of the learning that’s been happening in that rehearsal room… has been all of you teaching me.”

He scoffs in disbelief. “No, that’s not true,” he tells her. She’s already taught him more than any real teacher ever has, how can she be fake?

“It’s the only part of this that ever was,” she tells him, and that seals the deal. Carlos feels like his entire world is falling down around him for the second time that day. 

He opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out. All he can do is shake his head in disbelief. _This cannot actually be happening, right?_ If his high expectations for the day haven’t already been thrown out the window, they’ve been run over in the middle of a highway at this point

Instead, Miss Jenn reaches down next to her and pulls out what looks like a bright red safe at first. At closer inspection, it’s more of a heavy-duty carry-on file box.

“Here,” she says, pushing it towards Carlos. “It’s my director's file. Audition notes, staging ideas, everything. It’s all there.”

“But I can’t direct the show,” he tells her quickly. He would love to try it, sure, and he kind of loves that Miss Jenn thinks he can. 

But running rehearsal for a day is one thing, and judging by the cast’s reaction, there’s no way they would last more than 5 minutes with Carlos being in charge of more than just one set of blocking.

“Oh, it’s not for you, honey,” she shakes her head, which makes sense he guesses. “It’s for your next drama teacher.”

She stands up to leave, as Carlos struggles to form words. She pauses to linger by him for a moment longer.

“I just hope she loves you guys half as much as I do,” she says finally, placing her hand on Carlos’s shoulder.

Then she’s gone, leaving Carlos to sit there with the director’s file and wondering how it could have possibly gotten this bad. The person he looked up to most in the world, one of two people who saved him this year, is not even close to everything he thought she was. So what is he supposed to do now? Just accept reality and move on? 

Carlos isn’t very good at moving on...

He realizes something, though, after his mom picks him up and they’re driving home. Even if Miss Jenn is a fake teacher, it doesn’t mean she didn’t teach Carlos things. And now he has to save her in return. 

He just doesn’t know how yet.

* * *

Carlos is still struggling that night on how to help Miss Jenn when Seb texts him. They had been texting back and forth ever since he got back home and was able to check Seb’s response to his apology. (It was sweet, almost flustered, and it left Carlos feeling a little bit warmer after everything. When his mom asked, he blamed his flushed cheeks on the November chill.)

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _ashlyn invited us to red’s house to talk about some stuff. do you want a ride over?_

He wants to ask _why didn’t Ashlyn just text him?_ but he presumes it must have been sent to a cast-only group chat (still sucks, but understandable.) He checks just in case, though.

 **From: Carlos Rodriguez:** _did the invite extend to me or are you inviting me?_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _obviously youre supposed to come. youre just as important as everyone else in the show, if not more. we couldnt do it without you :)_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _and no, im not just saying that because i like you_

Well, Carlos doesn’t know how to function after that last text anyway (or how to interpret it), so he accepts the ride invitation. About half an hour later, a familiar car pulls up in front of his house.

He says goodbye to his mom and promises to text her before going outside and climbing into the car just like it’s a normal post-rehearsal trip. Except instead of going to his house, he’s leaving.

Georgie is sat in the driver's seat as always (he wonders what Seb must be bribing her with to get her to drive him everywhere,) and Seb is in the passenger seat. At least their matching smiles are able to calm the knot in his stomach a bit.

The drive over to Red’s house is a different energy than their usual drives home, with the radio playing quietly and Georgie’s casual chatter about nothing to break the silence. Maybe because it’s dark out, or maybe because Carlos can feel the nervous energy from both Seb and himself, but either way, they arrive after a few minutes. 

As Seb is letting Carlos out of the car, he can see Ashlyn and EJ over Seb’s shoulder, already following Kaden, Rico, and Steph into the house. Kourtney and Nini are walking up to the door as well, and more cars are pulling up, and _wow,_ Carlos hopes Big Red knows they’re all coming. 

Carlos follows Seb down the steps as they make their way into Big Red’s basement. He inevitably finds himself perched on the edge of the couch next to Seb, who has his knees drawn up to his chin as everyone finds their place in the room.

Everyone is completely silent as they all glance at each other— except for EJ, who’s staring at his phone— and Carlos avoids eye contact by keeping his eyes locked on the boy next to him (not that he minds.) The energy is definitely tenser now that they’re all together again, but at least he has Seb by his side this time.

“This is a terrible party. They aren't even pretzels,” Natalie breaks the silence from where she’s standing next to EJ.

(She’s got a point, although Carlos wouldn’t exactly call this a ‘party’.)

(Not that he would know, he’s never been to one.)

“What are we all doing here?” she continues.

Ashlyn sighs. “We all ended up in the same basement after a really bad day, so someone should say something.” 

Carlos almost laughs. _Yeah, bad day. You could say that again._ Instead, though, he speaks, somehow finding his words for what feels like the first time all day. 

“Fine. I’ll say something,” he bursts out, and he can see Seb and a few others looking at him in surprise, but he presses on. “I’m mad at Miss Jenn.”

“Why?” Gina scoffs. “Because she’s got a couple skeletons in her closet?”

 _God, no._ Carlos is the last person to judge that.

“No,” he explains. “Because she’s giving up. She was the first teacher to not see me as a punchline, and now she’s not even a real teacher?” 

“Define ‘real teacher’?” Ashlyn cuts in.

“He’s got a point,” Kourtney says.

Natalie shakes her head. “Does he, though?”

“Guys,” Red says, and Carlos is thankful that he’s at least trying to not have this afternoon happen all over again. He’s had enough disagreement and disappointment in just one day to last a lifetime.

Natalie presses on, though. “So, why are we all here then?” Next to him, Carlos feels Seb tense up

“Yeah, good question,” EJ adds, rolling his eyes. “This is a waste of time.”

And maybe this is, and maybe it’s the end and they have no idea yet, but Carlos is going to do everything he can to have that not happen. They’ve put in so much work, and they still have too much work to do before this can be the end.

“Honestly? Because she gave me a shot,” Carlos admits, and he can feel the words coming from somewhere deep in his body. “And it’s been a long time since someone gave me a shot.”

“Yeah,” Seb says quietly, voice breaking the tiniest bit as he slides his hand up to Carlos’s knee. Even in this depressing environment, he feels electric currents running through his body from where Seb’s skin meets his, and the soft “yeah” goes straight to his heart, making it beat quicker than normal.

Even in drama-teacher’s-career threatening situations, he’s a wreck.

“She gave me a voice,” Nini adds, and a few people nod along.

Kourtney crosses her arms. “Yeah, and now nobody’s gonna get to hear it because Miss Jenn screwed up.”

“Okay, does anyone actually care if her past is… _a little bit_ sketchy?” Ashlyn asks. “Anyone?”

Ricky sighs. “I do.”

“Seriously, dude?” Big Red asks. (Carlos wonders if there’s something Red knows that no one else does about Ricky, but now isn’t the time to ask, so he keeps his mouth shut.)

“What, because you live some perfect life?” Kourtney adds.

“Not at all,” he defends, standing up. “Because she put our show in jeopardy. And now we’re all here, _maybe_ for the last time together. And for some of us, this has become… I don’t know…” he trails off, struggling to find the words.

“Family,” Nini finishes for them.

Carlos can hear both their voices breaking, and he swallows thickly. Ricky was the last person he expected to feel so connected to the show and the cast, and if he can… well, Carlos has been working for this forever. Whether or not the cast accepts him as part of the group, for this to work out, _he_ needs to accept _them_ as part of _his_ group.

“What team?” Ricky asks.

And Carlos seals his fate as he softly replies “Wildcats,” along with everyone else.

“Okay wildcats,” Ashlyn says. “So what are we doing about it?”

* * *

Later that night, (or technically, early morning,) Nini ends up offering both Seb and Carlos a ride home along with her and Kourtney, and they both accept. He had texted his mom a while ago when they first realized they were going to be there longer than expected, and he didn’t want to wake her up now.

Going in Nini’s car did make him a bit nervous still after the events of rehearsal. Everyone had seemed to move past it already, but Carlos was still caught up on it for some reason. 

He pushed it aside, though, as he got into Nini’s car. She had actually been the one to suggest Carlos choreograph the dance with the help of Gina and Big Red, and the entire forest of boys incident seemed to drop from her mind, so he went along with it.

Now Seb and Carlos were in the backseat of Nini’s mom’s minivan, sitting closer than probably necessary with Seb’s head on his shoulder as they tiredly discuss the events of the night. Seb had been assisting Nini and Ashlyn in writing the song, so the two had been separated for most of the night until now. 

“Y’know,” Seb says between a yawn as he reaches out to play with Carlos’s fingers. “You don’t have to tell me all of Miss Jenn's secrets, but you don’t keep it a secret from me if you need to confide in someone,” he says softly, so only Carlos can hear over the rumble of the car. 

“Okay,” he agrees, because he’s too tired to think and he still doesn’t know how to interpret Seb’s text from earlier, but he’s willing to take whatever this is for the next few moments that he’s got it.

Reaching Carlos’s house feels the same way he did during the last few minutes of homecoming, like he just wants this feeling and this moment of safety to last forever. He does need to get at least a few hours of sleep before tomorrow, though, and in order to do that, he, unfortunately, has to leave Seb’s side.

Seb lifts his head when he feels them stop in Carlos’s driveway. In one swift movement, he brings the hand that he had been playing with to his lips, kissing Carlos’s knuckles softly. It sends shockwaves through his body, and if the car door was open, he probably would have fallen out.

“Goodnight, Los,” he says, and yawns again, and Carlos smiles.

“Goodnight, Seb. See you tomorrow,” he tells him, climbing out of the car, and walking straight into his house and into bed. He can shower in the morning, he just needs to sleep now and think later.

_Hopefully, this works out…_

* * *

The plan doesn’t really process in Carlos’s head until he’s sat next to Seb again at the board meeting. (Definitely unintentional blocking that they’re sitting next to each other, it just worked out that way.)

His entire day had been slowly dragging up to this moment, and any minute Kourtney would cut through with the song and they would jump up and start singing and dancing and _hopefully_ pull this off. 

Mr. Bowen had just finished speaking (turns out Carlos wasn’t the only one shocked by Ricky’s dedication to their cast), and Principal Gutierrez was now addressing his concern.

“Mr. Bowen, I appreciate your statement, but I think we can all agree that theater isn’t unique in this regard,” he sighs, and Carlos has to fight the urge to stand up and disagree with him. 

_Give it a moment…_

“It doesn’t have some special fairy dust that can’t be filled by another extracurricular,” Principal Gutierrez finishes. Carlos is ready to stand up and contest himself by this point, but before he can, a loud hum cuts through the room.

_Just in time, Kourtney._

As Principal Gutierrez frantically tries to find the source of the humming, the cast joins in as they all stand up together. Next to him, Seb gives him a smile before they launch into the song.

_Don't say another word_

_Some of us need to be heard_

_You want her big confession_

_She never saw Dear Evan Hansen_

_Whatever you think about her_

_The show can't go on without her_

And by some magic mixed with sheer force of will, they pull it off. Everyone comes in on time with their lines (they even gave Carlos one, which he thinks was Seb’s doing), and everyone dances around each other without running into each other. 

The vocals and the choreographer is flawless, and he can see smiles on the faces of the parents growing as they perform. Even Miss Jenn goes along with it as Carlos grabs her hand and brings her to the front, her eyes twinkling as she watches her students. She doesn’t say anything, but he can practically hear what she’s thinking.

 _Now this,_ this _is theatre._

It’s not a long song, the most they could write in their late night session, and just enough to get the point across. Before he knows it, he’s shooting Seb one last smile as they group together for the final verse. 

_She stands for truth, justice, and songs in our key_

_Jazz squares in the choreography_

_Sharpay and Ryan, you know they'd agree_

_She stands for us and we believe_

_She stands for us and we believe_

They end the song with their hands out and jazzing surrounding Miss Jenn. It’s silent for a moment except for their heavy breathing, before Carlos hears clapping, and then more. 

He turns to find every parent giving them a standing ovation, and it feels like the biggest weight in the world is lifted off of his shoulders. Over 24 hours of stressing and hard work and near panic attacks, and they _pulled it off._

As Principal Gutierrez finalizes the decision to keep the show on by some miracle, everyone cheers, and Carlos finds himself hugging just about everyone in the cast. It’s like the complete opposite feeling of yesterday in rehearsal. He was at what felt like rock bottom, and now he’s on top of the world.

“How did you do this?” Miss Jenn asks as she approaches him, her voice thick with emotion.

“We stayed up all night,” Carlos tells her, laughing slightly. It’s surreal, in a way. 

Miss Jenn looks like she’s on the verge of tears— which makes sense, they did just save her job— and she pulls him into a hug.

“Thank you,” she tells him when she pulls away, half shaking him as she does so.

Once she lets go, Carlos is about to go find his mom within the crowd when he remembers that there's still one person he hasn’t talked to yet.

As if on cue, a loud “Carlos!” cuts through the air, before Seb launches himself into Carlos’s arms. Neither of them says anything as he hugs the boy tightly, but this time, it’s not out of fear, but out of… well, you know.

“I can’t believe you did this,” Seb pulls back as he puts his hand on Carlos’s cheek, eyes shining. “You’re amazing,” he says almost breathlessly.

“I can’t believe _we_ did this,” Carlos corrects, trying to ignore his burning face where Seb’s hand is. “And you’re pretty fantastic yourself.”

Seb’s face turns what Carlos can only imagine is a matching shade of red to his own. “Okay,” he says giddily, dropping his hand. 

Just like at homecoming, Carlos wishes they weren’t in front of a crowd of people, so he could just lean in and kiss the other boy right then and there.

He doesn’t, because he assumes some of the Utah mom’s reactions might be worse than some of the students in their school. He still clings to Seb tight, though.

Maybe this week wasn’t what he thought it was supposed to be, but it was better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tried to make it seem like carlos was second guessing himself and forgetting who seb was and how he felt around him as he was spiraling. hopefully it came off like that and not like him having a personality change in the middle of this
> 
> also im gonna address two things that ive gotten some questions about real quick!  
> 1) i have some big plans for the next four chapters that dont necessarily have any support to canon (really feeding into the whole "behind the scenes" aspect) so if s2 doesnt make sense in correlation, im treating this like a standalone as if were not getting a s2. if i decide to write another one of these bts fics for s2 as well, that will most likely be a standalone from this fic
> 
> 2) while i personally hc seb as nonbinary, ive been using he/him and calling seb a boy because thats how they refer to him in canon. im hoping in s2 they have an arc of him coming out as nb bc that convo with kourtney in ep 8 would be a perfect buildup, although i dont think it will happen bc disney. however, i have a whole nb seb fic wip, and if i decide to do another one of these for s2 and its not addressed, than i might inclue it i that one as well if i find a good place for it!
> 
> i hope that makes sense without me spoiling what i have planned! feel free to ask more questions and ill address them the best i can! im also on tumblr @klaineiac and twitter @SE3LOS <3


	7. honey, not today of all days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“if no one knew my name_  
>  _would my wildest dreams feel like home?”_  
>  —out of the old

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whats up folks long time no see! really took creative initiative with the whole "behind the scenes" trope on this chapter so uhh enjoy :-)

It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, their last rehearsal before break, and Carlos is using any excuse he has to go talk to Seb. 

Homecoming had definitely been a big step in their potential relationship, but ever since the forest of trees incident, he’s felt more drawn than ever to be near Seb at all times. Whether it was the hug, or the text Seb had sent him that day, or his hand on Carlos’s knee in Big Red’s basement, he knew now more than ever he wanted this to be something— that he was _ready_ for it to be something. 

The idea of them being in this blissful era and then possibly not seeing the boy for a whole 4 days is painful to Carlos. So, throughout the rehearsal, he’s taken every opportunity he can to go stand near the piano. Every time he does, Seb gives him this smile like he’s pleasantly surprised every time whether or not he was expecting it, and it makes Carlos’s chest explode from the inside.

Carlos was standing there now, pretending to check his choreography notes with the music that Seb has. (He knows the show choreo back to front, and Seb probably knows that too, but neither of them says anything as Carlos keeps one hand on Seb’s shoulder.)

Every once in awhile as Miss Jenn sets up the blocking for the opening song, she’ll turn and ask Carlos for his opinion on something. It always elicits a general “yeah, sure” response from him. No matter what his opinion is, Miss Jenn will most likely do it, and Carlos isn’t exactly in the mood to put up a full argument about it when he can stay here and talk to Seb for the time being. Even when the song starts, he still lingers over there for a bit before retreating back to Miss Jenn for the last few bars. 

When he finally sits back down next to Miss Jenn as Ricky and Nini rehearse ‘Start of Something New’, though, he notices a _few_ changes in the choreography. Apparently, the things he accidentally agreed to were some extra props and choreo that... aren’t _exactly_ necessary for this particular song. _Oh well._ After a couple months of rehearsal, Carlos knows that Miss Jenn will decide in a week that she doesn’t like it and take it out. (By this point he’ll just be happy if they get the show together in time for opening night.)

He marks down some things to discuss with Miss Jenn about removing. (Seriously, he doesn’t think they need cardboard pieces with the song title. There’s a pretty small chance that the audience won’t know the song.) _At least the vocals sound good._

Not even halfway through the song, though, the bell signifying the end of all extracurriculars cuts through and interrupts rehearsal. Usually, they’re able to run on for however long necessary, but because of the break, they’re required to have everyone out of the building at a certain time before they can close it down for the long weekend. 

A “Yes! Yes! WHOO!” accompanies the blaring of the bell as EJ stands up from the benches, speaking for the first time since the start of rehearsal. He looks around after a moment once he realizes everyone is staring at him.

“Sorry, I really love Thanksgiving,” he admits, sitting back down. A few people laugh, including Carlos, but he wonders if anyone else is thinking that maybe he just did it to stop whatever was happening between Nini and Ricky during that duet. The two of them had been staring and smiling at each other the entire time even with the whirlwind of props and choreography going on around them.

“Okay, hold on!” Miss Jenn says over the chatter as the cast begins to pack up their belongings for the break. She stands up, and Carlos follows her to the center of the room.

“I know everyone is excited for the holiday break, but I’m me, and I have notes,” she continues. “Ricky and Nini— that was good. But it could be better.”

Carlos glances over at her. _Out of all the things in the scene and she thinks the vocals need adjustments?_ They’re lucky that Nini and Ricky will actually sing together at this point.

“She said in the spirit of holiday cheer,” she adds, noticing Carlos’s gaze on her.

He nods. “Good save.”

“Your homework over this break, all of you, is to please go on vocal rest,” she tells them. “And go over your lines too… which is hard to do on vocal rest but make it work. And remember, may nothing block your doorway to happiness!”

Just as she says it, Mr. Mazzara (ironically) steps through the door to the bomb shelter. “Excuse me!”

Carlos gives him the biggest eye roll he can muster, and in doing so, glances over at his backpack next to the piano. He had placed it over there as well in hopes to catch Seb at the end of rehearsal, but unfortunately, the boy had left his back by the risers and was already over there, deep in conversation with Gina.

“Okay, starting now,” Miss Jenn says in response to the STEM teacher.

“Oh, don’t mind me. I just came to return a missing item. Ashlyn,” all of the students watch as he approaches the girl with a giant accordion file-type folder in hand. “Cannot have our robotics team co-captain going home without her binder over break.”

She takes it with a smile, before going over to her backpack which is placed next to the piano. Carlos follows, in hopes that this means the end of the conversation with Mr. Mazzara and that he’ll leave. 

Unfortunately, he has no such luck. “Thank you, Benjamin, and I hope you have a lovely holiday with whoever could possibly love you.”

“Oh, well, in fact, I will be enjoying three varieties of peach cobbler with a loving family so large, we’re renting out the Rotary club.”

“Well, I’m sure it can’t compare to the candied yam bake-off that we throw every year in _my_ home, but I wish you joy nonetheless.

“And I wish you had some joy, too,” Mr. Mazzara says before finally spinning on his heel and walking out the door. 

Carlos stands up from where he was packing up his backpack, letting out a sigh as he faces Ashlyn. “Cobbler sounds so nice,” he says, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. “My family usually has three protein courses and then everybody’s asleep by 6:00.”

“My folks start eating at dawn, and then they barely make it past the Macy’s Parade,” Big Red says, coming up behind them.

“Well at least your folks are sticking around,” Ashlyn tells them, leaning her elbow on the piano next to her. “EJ’s parents are treating my parents to a spa in Park City after dinner tomorrow. They told us to try and have a meaningful night at the movies.”

Carlos immediately turns to Big Red to see if they have the same thing in mind. When he turns back, Ashlyn is looking at both of them with the same look he had given Red.

“Wait…” she says, shifting herself so she’s standing a little taller as she regards them, an idea brewing in her mind. 

“I was gonna say,” Carlos nods, egging her on.

“Do you guys want to come over after dinner tomorrow? Like, late night party?”

Next to him, Big Red is nodding enthusiastically as Carlos grins.

“I never don’t want that,” he tells her, making Ashlyn laugh. It feels good to be included with them in something again.

Big Red leans closer, a little quieter this time. “Should we keep it to a small group, or…” he sounded hesitant, so Carlos took it as a sign.

“Party at Ashlyn’s after Thanksgiving tomorrow, everyone’s invited!” he calls out to the room, and immediately people erupt into cheers. After the past few weeks they’ve had, everyone is in desperate need of a little celebration.

After everyone calms down and begins to exit, they begin to finish packing up and exiting the room, including Ashlyn and Big Red, with Red saying something about offering to help set up the party. Carlos is about to follow them out when Seb comes up to him.

He smiles as the boy approaches. “Hey, you going tomorrow?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he smiles softly. “I was actually wondering, though, if you maybe wanted to come over to my house today? Since you still owe me that coffee. The cows aren’t exactly the best partners to practice my lines with, and I think Georgie is getting a little tired of _me_ bossing _her_ around.”

Carlos laughs. “Yeah, of course. I would love to come over.”

As they’re walking down the hallway together, their hands bump together like they typically do when the two are walking together. 

This time, though, he musters enough courage to reach out and take Seb’s hand. It feels like ever since homecoming, Seb has been the only one to initiate anything affectionate, and Carlos doesn’t want him feeling like he’s the only one who wants this, whatever _this_ is. Next to him, Seb squeezes his hand softly, and he can see the tips of the other boy’s ears turning red. 

They get in the car together as usual, pointed looks from Georgie at their joined hands ignored. Seb convinces her to stop once at Starbucks, so Carlos can fulfill his promise of buying him coffee (or, hot chocolate, actually) with only the promise of bringing her back a cake pop. 

As they pull up in front of a small, off-white farmhouse with a barn behind it, Carlos realizes he hasn’t been to Seb’s house yet. They exit the car, and he follows Seb up the steps onto the wrap around porch.

Carlos is immediately surrounded by noise the moment he steps into the house. A mix of at least three or four different voices overlap the humming of a fan and the blare of the television in another room. There are also a few barks coming from two different dogs, both of which run up to greet the group as they enter. It’s the complete opposite of his own house, and he _loves_ it.

Seb brings him into the kitchen long enough to throw away their cups while he introduces Carlos to his parents, as well as two more of his sisters before grabbing two apples, attempting to escape up to his room. Unfortunately, though, as they reach the stairs, Seb’s mom calls out.  
“Sebastian, sweetie, can you feed the cows for me?” she asks. “I have to finish making the pies for tomorrow.”

“Can’t Georgie do it? I’m kind of busy,” Seb sighs, gesturing towards Carlos as he faces his mom. Before she can reply, Georgie slips past the two of them and up the stairs, calling “Nope!” behind her. 

His mom looks at her, then back at Seb. “Please?”

Seb sighs again, looking over at Carlos, apology in his eyes. “Do you mind?” he asks, handing Carlos one of the apples.

“Not at all,” Carlos smiles in an attempt to make him feel better. “You can introduce me to all of your cows.”

That seems to cheer him up enough fro Seb to lead out, behind the house, and towards the barn that Carlos had noticed when they first pulled up. It’s painted a dark red, almost brown, and the wood is a bit faded. He can already hear the cows inside making noise without having even entered yet. 

When they do enter, it’s exactly what he’s expecting. He’s been to a farm before when he was a lot younger, so the stereotypical red barn with each cow in their specific pen doesn’t come as any surprise to him.

Seb goes around, gently pouring food from a bucket for them, introducing them as he does so. It’s cute watching him work, and he has an impressive amount of musical pun names for them, but he feels bad for not helping.

“Is there anything I can do?” he offers after a few more moments of silently following Seb around while he eats his apple.

“Oh, sorry, is this boring?” he turns, blushing slightly. “I should be done soon, I’m sorry for making you wait-”

“No, it’s fine!” Carlos explains quickly, cutting him off. “I just feel bad standing around behind you.”

Seb shrugs. “It’s fine if you’re okay, I wasn’t expecting to have to do chores this early. Is there anything I can get you while you wait?”

“No, I’m good,” he smiles. _It’s always good around Seb._

He finishes up, the two of them idly chatting while he does so. Seb even manages to convince him to pet one of the babies, a new calf named Beyonce (courtesy of Georgie, which Carlos of course adored.) 

He admittedly was a bit scared of farm animals growing up, but watching Seb do his chores with them was able to ease his mind enough for him to at least pet one. (As for picking her up, which Seb did offer, Carlos thinks he’ll hold off on.)

They walk back to the house together, hand in hand like they were on the way to Georgie’s car earlier. It feels totally natural to just slip his hand into Seb’s at this point, and Carlos wonders what would happen if he just brought the situation up to him. 

He’s been trying to figure out how since the night after homecoming, but with the Miss Jenn situation, he never found a chance to do it earlier. It leaves him thinking over every moment they have together at night, wondering how he could naturally bring up the subject. Every moment he spends with Seb alone, though, he forgets himself. All cognitive thought disappears when the boy gets within six feet of him.

He’s _pretty_ sure Seb likes him. No, he’s _definitely_ sure of it, considering the boy’s hand currently in his. More than anything he wants to be able to call Seb his boyfriend. How to get to the point of _asking_ that, though, is where you lose him. It’s unfortunate that he’s not close enough to Nini or anyone who’s actually done _the whole relationship thing_ because he has no one to help him out. 

Oh well, though. There are some things he has to figure out on his own, and luckily he’s with a perfect person to do it with. He _will_ figure it out. It’s just a matter of when.

When they enter the house, Seb lets go of his hand in favor of opening the door for Carlos, ushering him up to his room. It takes him a minute to figure out which room was his, considering the five different doors in the hallway, all painted white and slightly chipping. When Seb reaches the top of the stairs, though, he takes his hand again and leads him to one of the last doors in the hall. 

He closes the door behind them, and Carlos turns to admire the room. The walls of Seb’s are a soft green. A dark wood-framed bed with an off-white comforter and patterned with little leaves and flowers is pushed into the corner of the room, the afternoon sun streaming in through one of the windows and lighting up the center of the room.

A few decorations hung along the walls; various art prints, playbills from local shows, and printed photos with memories that lined the room. Carlos couldn’t help but admire them for a few moments, laughing silently at younger Seb smiling widely at the camera with his siblings or friends. Nothing about that smile had changed.

There were a few recent ones on the wall as well. He notices one of Seb and Natalie during auditions, as well as one of their failed jumps for the playbill, and even a couple from homecoming. It makes his heart flutter when he sees one of the two of them dancing together, a photo Ashlyn had snapped and sent to the both of them after the dance. Seeing the two of them together like that makes his stomach flip in a good way.

Carlos recognizes a desk on the other side of the room from their FaceTime calls. It’s made of the same dark wood as his bed and dresser are. Currently, it looks like a _High School Musical_ shrine, covered with stuff for their show. He smiles when he notices the ‘Sharpay’ name card that Seb had apparently taken from the read through. (Carlos had taken his home as well, it was currently pinned to his corkboard.)

Behind him, Seb digs his script out of his backpack. “Do you mind reading for Ryan? I want to rehearse page 74. I keep tripping up on it during rehearsal,” he asks. 

Carlos pulls out his own script, flipping to the page as he sits down at the end of Seb’s bed. The scene towards the end of the show when Sharpay and Ryan are plotting to change the timing of the callback. He’s already familiar with the script after countless meetings with Miss Jenn for blocking discussion. Plus, as amazing as Seb is when he’s acting, Carlos _has_ noticed him trip over the lines a couple times now that Miss Jenn has them off-book.

Just as they’re about to start, the door bursts open and Georgie leans against the doorway, “You know you’re not supposed to have the door closed when you have a boy over,” she says slyly, making both boys blush despite not even being close to each other.

“We’re running lines,” Seb tells her, doing his best to glare with his face heated up. “So unless you want to join and hear me run the same scene over and over again-”

“I’ll save it for opening night,” Georgie cuts off, rolling her eyes teasingly before turning. 

Once she leaves (closing the door behind her,) Carlos opens his script backup to the scene. Across the room, Seb places his open script behind him on the desk before gesturing towards him to start off the conversation. 

“Wow, they sound good!” Carlos reads off, doing his best to portray the character as he reads the line out to Seb. He’s admittedly not the best actor, but he manages to at least keep what he hopes sounds like surprise in his voice.

Seb scoffs dramatically, and Carlos can already see him back in his Sharpay mindset. He leans to the side as if he’s listening to Troy and Gabriella practice in the room next door, before turning around to face him. “We have to do something.”

Carlos glances down at the page, but the next Ryan is for another couple of lines. He looks back up at Seb, nodding at him to keep going.

Seb squeezes his eyes shut, tilting his head towards the ceiling as he racks his brain for the lines. “Our callback is on Thursday, and the basketball game and scholastic decathlon are on Friday,” he says hesitantly, rolling his shoulders as he gets back into character. Carlos continues to nod along encouragingly. 

“It’s too bad all the events aren’t happening on the same day, at the same time!” he finishes slyly with one hand on his hip, voice dripping with sass and the general fabulous tone Sharpay radiates.

He’s so perfect for this role that Carlos almost forgets to keep going. “That wouldn’t work out because then Troy and Gabriella wouldn’t be able to make the callba…” he trails off, as Seb shakes his head slightly, giving him wide, condescending eyes in perfect Sharpay fashion

“I’m proud to call you my sis- brother,” Carlos corrects himself at the very second, and he can see Seb biting his cheek to keep from smiling.

“I know,” he finishes, then pretends to whip his non-existent long hair, making them both laugh. 

The scene goes on for them still after this when Miss Darbus is supposed to go on stage, and while Carlos could easily read for both roles for Seb, instead he puts his script down in favor of clapping softly for the boy. “You’re doing amazing, Seb!”

Seb smiles softly, but it’s soon replaced by a tense half-smile as he drops down next to Carlos. “I’m never going to remember all these lines,” he sighs, laying down back onto the bed. “The last role I played with anywhere close to this many lines was when I was the grasshopper in _James and the Giant Peach_ in 7th grade.”

It makes Carlos smile, remembering one of the photos he noticed of Sebs in a dark green jacket and a top hat with antennas sticking out next to some other kids from what must have been the night of their show. It’s weird to think about their separate histories in theatre before ending up at the same school. Judging by the various playbills with Seb’s middle school on them, he must have been doing shows nearly his entire life.

Meanwhile, Carlos had barely been involved before coming to East High. He had auditioned for a few of his middle school shows, but he was almost always cast in ensembles. He much preferred being behind the scenes of the show anyway, and be able to witness the whole thing come together from every perspective. 

Instead of dwelling on that, he holds out his hand to pull Seb back up to a sitting position. “You have nearly all your lines memorized, though!” he says. “Compared to Ricky or EJ, I think you’re doing fantastic. Plus your acting is on point, you would be able to pull off forgetting a line.”

“Really? I’m worried I’m making my Sharpay too nice. I always loved her too much as a kid to remember she’s a villain,”

“Trust me, it’s perfect,” Carlos laughs again. “And I agree, Sharpay is barely the villain in the show. The _real_ villain is Gabriella.”

“Righ?!” Seb agrees, turning back around. “Especially in _High School Musical 3!_ Gabriella already has her scholarship to Stanford, there’s nobody she has to impress with the show. The reason she didn’t get that Juilliard scholarship is because they made a fool of her on stage, and then Gabriella stole the show as always, and now she’s stuck in Albuquerque for the rest of her life.”

Carlos bites his lip, trying to keep from smiling. 

“What?” Seb asks when he notices.

“It’s just… I’ve never seen _High School Musical 2_ or _3_ all the way through,” he admits. 

“What?!” Seb says again, but this time more distraught. “You’re telling me you’ve only seen the worst movie of the trilogy?”

It makes Carlos gasp and laugh at the same time. “ _HSM 1_ is a classic! I refuse to believe the sequels of movies can ever top the first one.”

“Okay, I agree, but also _High School Musical 2_ is, like, every reason I ever wanted to be Sharpay.”

“I mean, I watched up until the end of Fabulous, but then I gave up on it,” Carlos explains.

Seb rolls his eyes teasingly, sitting back down next to Carlos. “Okay, at least you’re somewhat cultured. First chance we get after break, though, I am sitting you down and making you watch the second two movies with me,” he says, nudging Carlos’s shoulder with his own.

Carlos grins. “Deal,” he says, and now would be a perfect time to make a move and just kiss him, or bring up the whole situation, or do anything. But with Seb’s eyes locked with his, his heart is racing too fast to think properly at this moment, and the moment passes. 

It’s progress, though. 

(Kind of.)

* * *

7:45pm the night of Thanksgiving, and Carlos is just about to leave for Ashlyn’s party when he remembers something that’s been in his closet for _years._

Ever since he had watched the movies when he was younger, not knowing he would one day be able to create his own version of the show, he wanted a way to express his obsession with the movies. And with that, _High School Musical: the Choosical_ had been born. Granted, at 5 years old, his summer project was more of his _mom’s_ project. 

Still, his family had stopped playing it after he had brought it out every night for weeks until they all memorized every question, so he hadn’t played since that summer he made it. No better night than tonight to bring it out again now that he has his own version of the cast to play it with.

“Are you ready to go, _mijo?”_ he hears his mom call up the stairs just as he’s contemplating whether or not to bring it. Before he can second guess himself too much, Carlos grabs the folded red cardboard off of the top shelf of his closet and heads out the door.

As Carlos walks downstairs, his mom raises her eyebrows amusedly at the game in his hands. “Haven’t seen that one in a while,” she says, grinning at him

He smiles, rolling his eyes at her. “Well, it’s not like I’ve had an excuse to take it out in 10 years.”

“Better them than me. I could probably win an episode of _Jeopardy_ with just _High School Musical_ trivia,” she laughs as she opens the door. 

After he’s seated with _the Choosical_ safely in his lap, Carlos pulls out his phone just as his phone buzzes with a text from Seb.

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _everyone’s here! just missing you :) <3 _

Carlos has to keep from smiling too much at the text as he replies to avoid any questions from his mom.

 **From: Carlos Rodriguez:** _omw now! tell ash im sorry im late but im bringing smth_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _oh? should i be scared?_

 **From: Carlos Rodriguez:** _no!! I think ur gonna like it :)_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _guess i better trust you on this one. luckily- i always trust you! :)_

 **From: Seb Matthew-Smith:** _text me when you get here!!_

Even as he gets closer to the cast, and even after having seen him just yesterday, it still makes his chest tight whenever Seb seems excited to see Carlos. It always instills him with confidence to know he likes Carlos back at least somewhat the same way he likes Seb. Perhaps that confidence could take him a long way tonight…

Carlos has to put his phone down, forcing himself to think about something else as he stares out the window and attempts to stop his cheeks from heating up. As much as he loves to daydream about the possibility of having a relationship with Seb, he’s pretty sure his mom knows something is up between the two of them. He doesn’t want to talk to her about it before he knows for sure that it’s real.

Instead, his mind drifts to the party. He hopes he wasn’t being too forward when he invited the entire drama club to come, but he couldn’t help seizing the opportunity when he saw it. Thankfully, everyone seemed excited, including Ashlyn who has to deal with having two dozen theatre kids all in her living room. 

It’s not the high school party like the one in shows and movies, he knows that much already. He’s already positive there won’t be drinking because if anything happens it could potentially endanger the show, and, honestly, he’s kind of happy that there won’t be. (Not to mention that theatre kids with sugar are already bad enough.) But it is his _first_ ever party, which has to count for something. If there’s any night for a couple of firsts, it’s tonight. 

The car pulls up to what he assumes is Ashlyn’s house, judging by the cars lined on the street and the lights on inside. Carlos shoots Seb a quick text before leaning over to kiss his mom on the cheek, promising to call her when he needs a ride home. He then carefully climbs out of the car, _the Choosical_ still in hand, and makes his way up to the front door.

Just as Carlos is trying to figure out how to open the door without tilting the game so all the pieces fall out (again, never ended up coming up with a better way to store it,) the door opens. In the doorway stands Seb in a pink button up. 

“Long time no see, Rodriguez- oh, do you want help with that?” Seb says, eyes drawing from Carlos’s face down to the box in his hand, playful grin turning into delighted confusion. He offers out a hand, but Carlos waves it away.

“As long as you don’t close the door on me, we should be good.”

“Is that your mom?” he asks Carlos, gesturing behind him.

Carlos smiles. “Yup. I think she’s just checking to make sure this is the right house.”

Seb glances over Carlos’s shoulder, grinning as he waves at the car before he ushers him inside the house. No doubt Carlos would be hearing about _that_ later on. 

Instead, he focuses his attention on the rest of the cast and crew that are already seated in Ashlyn’s living room. 

“The party may begin!” Carlos announces, Seb closing the door behind him. 

“Carlos!” Ashlyn emerges from what must be the kitchen judging by the bowl of food in her hand. She passes it off to Kaden, though, and reaches out to help bring the game in. “Woah, okay, you know it’s a potluck and not catering, right?”

“This is not food,” he promises. 

“Oh, good, I thought it was pizza. Too much lactose,” Big Red chimes in, causing a few scattered laughs.

Carlos sets the game down on the table, unlatching the velcro strip his mom had attached to it to keep everything in place. As he unfolds the game, gasps come from nearly every person in the room as they stare at the game. 

“What is that?” he hears Big Red say among the excited mumbles.

“This is something I’ve been waiting many long years to share with the world,” he explains while the cast fiddles with all the pieces and admires the different tiles on the board. It boosts his confidence when he finally says, “you guys, this is _High School Musical: the Choosical._ ”

Ashlyn laughs giddily. “The what, now?” she asks, causing a few others to laugh as well.

Carlos grins, his chest warming as he _finally_ gets to debut his childhood creation. “Okay, so when I was a child, I wanted to go into the movie. But the movie was on a screen.”

“He’s not wrong,” Seb adds. 

“So, I decided to create the next best thing: an interactive, hyperactive HSM experience that can be played by children and adults everywhere in the world…” he pauses, then, “as long as they lived in my bedroom.”

“Wait so you’ve had this for ten years?” Big Red asks.

“And I’ve never actually played it,” he says. _Well, never actually played it the way he always imagined._ It’s not exactly the best game when only two people are playing. 

“Okay, we’ll _totally_ play it!” Ashlyn says, and everyone else murmurs an excited agreement.

“I’m gonna cry!” Carlos says, (jokingly, although part of him wants to in a good way.) He then rummages through his pockets, where he had put all the cards and the figurines before he left his house, so they didn’t fall out of the game during transfer. 

“There are two teams. The East High Wildcats-” he explains, pulling out the little toy cheetah (the closest thing he could get to a leopard). “-Or the West High Knights,” he says, this time with a knight figurine. “So, sort yourselves.”

Everyone talks excitedly among themselves as they decide who’s on which team. Seb, unfortunately, has to move from where he was sitting next to Carlos, to on the floor with the rest of the Wildcats team— the team Carlos always insisted on being while playing when he was younger. 

Meanwhile, he notices Ashlyn shyly going to sit next to Big Red. Carlos vaguely remembers Red offering to set up before the party, and wonders if something happened before the party while no one else was around. He makes a mental note to ask her about it later.

“Wait, who goes first?” Big Red asks.

“Oh,” Carlos says, realizing he never actually figured out that detail. Usually, when he played with his mom, she would just let him go first. 

“Coin toss?” Nini suggests. A few people nod in agreement, and after a bit of rummaging around, Ashlyn offers up a quarter to Carlos.

He takes it, then turns to the Wildcats team. “Pick a side.”

“Heads!” Seb calls out.

“I guess we’re tails then,” Ashlyn says in reference to the Knights, though nobody seems to object. 

Carlos flips the coin.

_Tails._

“West High Knights go first,” he announces, and the right side of the room cheers. Across the coffee table, Seb just smiles as he shrugs, mouthing _‘whoops!’_ to Carlos. 

Just as they’re about to start, Ashlyn announces that EJ had just texted her that he’s on his way. They decide to wait to start the game until he, as well as Ricky and Gina, arrive. A few people stand up, gravitating towards the kitchen for more drinks or just to stretch their legs. Carlos is tempted to go find a way to squeeze in next to Seb for a bit, but he looks deep in conversation with Steph. He just talked to him yesterday, anyway.

Instead, he decides to strike up a conversation with Big Red, who’s across the coffee table.

“Hey, Red, how’s your day been?” he asks, causing Big Red to look up from his phone in surprise. (To be fair, they’ve never really interacted themselves before if Ashlyn or Ricky wasn’t around.)

“Oh,” he smiles. “It was all right. My parents have been napping on and off since noon, so I’m glad we have this party.”

Carlos matches his grin. “Same. Did you come early?”

“Uh, yeah, I did. Ashlyn wanted help bringing all the sodas in, and I offered to help since crew is basically all about carrying around heavy stuff.”

It makes Carlos laugh. It’s not exactly _all_ that crew is about, but sometimes it does feel a little bit just like that. Plus whenever he brings up theatre without the presence of Ricky, it makes Carlos happy to hear he’s not the only one who found a new family this year.

“How’s Ashlyn?” he asks, suddenly deciding to try and draw some details about her from him. “I haven’t really talked to her since rehearsal yesterday, and just now when I walked in.”

“Oh, she’s good, I think,” he says, flushing slightly at the question. “I mean, I don’t really know, but she seems good.”

“Cool,” Carlos smiles, nodding. _Interesting…_ Perhaps he won’t be the only one this year spawning a new potentially romantic relationship

“How’s Seb? I know you two are like… a thing,” Red says suddenly, and this time it’s Carlos’s turn to blush. He knew Ashlyn thought they were together, but he didn’t realize that _other_ people may have thought the same. 

“What do you mean?”

Big Red glances over at Seb, then back at Carlos as he speaks. “I mean, like… you guys are dating, right?”

“Uh, no? I mean, well… no. I don’t think so. But, also, like, kinda? It’s complicated,” he rambles. “We’re not. But, like, _yet._ We could be. I don’t know really.”

“Oh,” Big Red says, shrugging. Judging by his blank stare, Carlos honestly thinks that his words may have gone through one ear and out the other. “Alright, cool. You would be good together, though.”

“Thanks,” Carlos replies. He’s definitely bright red at this point. 

Thankfully, they’re saved by Gina and Ricky walking in together. Excited chatter starts up again as members of the cast call them over to sit with the rest of the West High Knights, who had ended up being slightly smaller compared to the Wildcats. Carlos settles back down in his spot on the floor, pulling each different deck of category cards out of his jacket before calling everyone to attention. 

“Okay, okay you guys, okay!” he calls, and excited chatter turns to shushing as everyone quotes down to hear him explain the rules.

He points to each deck of cards as he speaks, each sporting one of his favorite characters on the label. “There are four basic categories. The _Getcha Head in the Frame_ Trivia Challenge, the _Bop ‘Till You Drop_ Dance Challenge, _Sync to the Status Quo_ Lip Sync Challenge, and _Looking for Glee,_ which I thought would be a fun name for the singing challenge because when I was a kid I was obsessed with the show.”

A few people laugh, but not in a judgemental way, including the newly arrived EJ, who tells him, “hey, it still holds up.” 

“Oh, good, I thought you guys were gonna judge me,” Carlos admits with a laugh, causing a few murmured reactions, all sounding like it’s obvious that they wouldn’t. (Not that they have exactly the best track record of not judging Carlos, but it’s reassuring to at least hear their opinions on the game.)

He gets back on track, pointing to the left side of the room. “Okay, so Knights, you won the coin toss, so you guys get to pick the first challenge.”

They talk among themselves but eventually surface with Ashlyn being their chosen spokesperson. “We’re gonna _Look for Glee.”_

“Excellent,” Carlos says in his best dramatic game show host voice. He picks a card from the deck before clearing his throat and reading the question. “As fast as you can, please sing the lyrics to ‘What I’ve Been Looking For’ to the _rhythm_ of ‘Getcha Head in the Game’... go!”

They sputter for a moment before Ashlyn and Red take the lead, rapping out the lyrics while Ricky sings out the ‘Getcha Head in the Game’ rhythm. It’s messy, and half the time they don’t even get the lyrics right, but it’s good enough to complete the challenge and leaves the rest of the cast laughing at the group. They end the song, clearly very proud of themselves, and everyone else still in tears at their performance.

“That was terrible,” EJ wheezes, followed by Seb’s joyful “I’m so happy.”

“Congratulations,” Carlos says, collecting himself as he turns to the team. “You get to move four spaces closer to center stage at East High!”

The Knights cheer as Red leans forward to move their knight across the board, much to the disagreement of the Wildcats. 

Ignoring EJ’s _“they get four spaces for that?”_ , Carlos continues the game, turning to the left side of the room. 

“Okay, Wildcats. Take a spin,” he tells them.

EJ leans forward, spinning the Game of Life wheel that was attached to the center of the board that decided how many spaces they would move, before settling back in the chair. “Alright, we’re gonna bop.”

“Okay. Pick one member from each team,” Carlos says dramatically.

Both teams turn to talk among themselves, voices growing as they debate who to send up. After a moment, EJ and Ricky stand up at the same time. Realizing it’s already too late to switch them out without it being awkward, the room grows silent except for a quiet _“oh, boy,”_ from Seb. 

“Your challenge is to stare at your partner and do the Sharpay and Ryan warm-up thing for 60 seconds straight without laughing…” he trails off, regarding the two boys. “Or killing each other.”

Their competitive nature makes for thick tension between them, as well as all the Nini drama, but Carlos already knows that’ll just make for a more interesting game. (As long as they don’t literally kill each other.

“Okay, go!”

Both of them start the dramatic warm up, making the buzzing noises with their lips, then shouting “Ma!” as they flick their hands at each other like there’s water on them, just like from the movie. It becomes increasingly clear within the first few seconds that nobody can take them seriously like this, including them. Before long, everyone is once again doubled over with laughter.

It’s not even the hilarity of the situation that makes Carlos smile wide. Knowing that his game (and indirectly, himself) brings this much joy and laughter to the cast and crew is enough.

* * *

After many rounds of _Choosical,_ including Seb doing his best Sharpay impression while reading Chad’s monologue to Troy from the first movie, Gina destroying everyone at movie trivia, Ashlyn giving a dramatic reading of ‘When There Was Me and You’, and Ricky doing as many jazz squares as he could in a minute, which ended in him tripping over himself and collapsing on the floor, the two teams were one tile away from the end of the board. Meaning, it was time for a tiebreaker.

“Okay, you guys!” Carlos says, calling for everyone’s attention, which was working better tonight than it ever did during rehearsal. “According to the _Musical Choosical Handbook of Rulesicals_ -”

“Stop it,” EJ interrupts, though his tone is harmless and everybody laughs.

He continues. “The only way to resolve a tie at the end of regulation play is with a lightning speed round of _Getcha Head in the Frame_ Trivia questions.”

A few _oooh’s_ echo around the room as everybody sits back, preparing to show off their respective HSM knowledge.

“Are you ready?” Carlos asks, holding up the deck. “Because people have been known to cry during this.”

“I thought you had never actually played-” Seb starts, but Carlos cuts him off.

“Honey, not today of all days.”

Seb’s eyes widen, but he gives Carlos a soft smile as a feel people nudge him teasingly. 

Carlos doesn’t even realize the pet name he used until he turns to see Ashlyn and Big Red giving him matching pointed looks. It was an accident, really. Ever since working with Miss Jenn, the names have started to slip out without him realizing. He realizes now, with Seb, though, that it means something totally different. 

“Okay, here we go,” he starts, fighting back any heat creeping to his cheeks as he reads the question. “Name both jersey numbers Troy wears in the movie.”

Right away, Big Red answers. “Oh, uh, fourteen and ten!”

Carlos doesn’t even register who answered until he looks up, but when he does, he’s shocked. No wonder he and Ashlyn get along so well. Turns out, Big Red is a _High School Musical_ nerd just like the rest of them. 

Speaking of Ashlyn, she’s just as shocked as Carlos. “How did you know that? I didn’t even know that!”

“Correct!” Carlos moves on. “How does Gabriella describe herself when she’s complaining to her mom?”

Ashlyn jumps up. “Oh! As the school’s freaky genius girl.”

“And do people usually talk like that?”

“They do not!”

“Correct!” he says with a laugh, before turning back to the left side of the room. “Wildcats! Whose red tie does Ms. Darbus compliment at auditions?”

Expressions drop as everyone falters for a moment, trying to remember the audition scene in the movie since it’s not part of their show.

Just as it seems like nobody will get the answer, EJ speaks up. “Allen?”

Carlos grins. “Yes!”

People turn in surprise to EJ, before breaking out with praise for him. 

He holds up his phone. “I looked it up on my phone, you guys. I can’t stop cheating, I’m sorry!”

Praise turns to groans, as everyone grills him on cheating. 

“EJ…” he trails off, vaguely remembering seeing a few Instagram stories from him earlier in the day when he was talking about cheating at water polo. Not one of his best moves. Apparently, it’s a common theme for him. Honestly, Carlos is just surprised he never got caught.

“Well, the West High Knights have a chance to steal,” he pulls attention back to the game. “What is the name of the girl who pops and locks.”

Immediately, Gina hops up. “I love to pop and lock and jam and break!” she sings, mocking Martha’s movements from the movie much to the delight of the others. 

“Martha Cox!” she answers afterward, dropping her arms.

Everybody laughs, and Carlos reaches for the handful of confetti he pocketed.

“West High Knights win!” he announces, throwing it into the air, and the right side of the room erupts into cheers. 

“You, my dear, get this homemade Scholastic Decathlon ribbon,” he presents to Gina. It’s a little prop he’s had for a while, although never had any real use for. “Careful, it’s a straight pin, and was never sanitized,” he explains as he attempts to pin it onto her. 

“Ooh, wait, everybody get in!” Gina pulls her phone out of her pocket and holds it up so the surrounding castmates can lean in for a selfie. It’s not the best angle or lighting, but it makes everybody laugh. 

Once the photo is taken, she brings her phone back down to type out a number. “Okay, hold on, I need to share this honor with my loved ones.”

“You gotta stop moving, this is the price we pay for beauty,” Carlos jokes as he tries not to stab her while attaching the pin.

Someone picks up on her phone, though, and she holds it up to her ear just as he finishes pinning it. “Mom, mom, mom, okay, two things. One, I was just crowned the queen of crazytown. And two, can I spend the night at Ashlyn’s house?”

“Um, it’s actually the queen of East High,” Carlos corrects, settling back down in his spot on the floor. 

She shushes him, then “sorry, mom, I can’t hear you,” she tells her. She pulls the phone off her ear and holds it out, tapping a button. “Okay, mom, you’re on speaker. Say happy Thanksgiving to my mom everyone!” 

“Happy Thanksgiving!”

 _“Oh! Same to all of you!”_ Ms. Porter says, then a little quieter, _“Gina, honey, can you take me off speaker?”_

* * *

“Hey, are you heading out?” Seb asks as Carlos is packing up the game. After Gina left abruptly, followed by Ricky and Nini, the party pretty much winded down. Carlos didn’t know the full story, but from what it sounded like, Gina may be moving again. Already. 

“Yeah, I’m just getting everything together,” Carlos says, shrugging on his jacket. “Mood kind of dropped.”

Seb picks up _the Choosical_ carefully and hands it to him once he has his jacket on. “Do you need a ride?”

“My mom is on her way already. We could go sit outside together, though? I think I saw a porch swing out there.”

Seb nods. They go up to Ashlyn together, saying goodbye and thanking her for hosting. Seb allows Carlos to lead the way out the door since he was carrying the game.

“I feel bad for Gina,” Seb says, walking down to the swing at the end of the porch. “I know she had kind of a rough start, but she was starting to fit in well.”

Carlos sets the game down on the porch steps so he doesn’t accidentally drop it while they’re swinging. He then goes to sit down next to Seb. “Do you really think she’s going to move?”

He draws one knee up to his chest. “I don’t know. I mean, her mom is her only family. It’s not really like Gina has another option if she leaves.”

“Yeah. I get it, though. It’s not easy only having one parent.”

“What happened to your dad?” Seb asks softly, glancing at him without turning his head. 

It’s hard to make out his features with the porch light all the way at the door as their only source of light, but he already knows what Seb is giving him. It’s the same one everyone gives when they ask. Like Carlos might break.

He takes a deep breath, heart beating hard against his chest like it’s trying to break out and run away. It’s not his favorite topic.

“When I was around three, he just… left. Sent her divorce papers a little while later or whatever. I don’t really know the reason why, but I guess he didn’t want _this,_ with me and my mom.” Carlos says, spreading his hands. “He lives outside of Salt Lake. I think he has kids, but I’ve never met them or his wife. The few times I’ve visited, they weren’t there. I don’t visit anymore, though.”

Seb is quiet for a moment. Then, “Well, that sucks- _he_ sucks. He doesn’t know what he’s missing.” 

Carlos shrugs. “Yeah, well, it’s not a big deal. I have my mom, and I don’t think she has any plans of bringing me across the country at a week's notice, so there’s that.”

It’s enough of a joke to make Seb laugh, or maybe it’s just an excuse for him to take Carlos’s hand. “That’s good because I don’t know how I’d feel about you leaving.”

“Same applies to you,” he says, squeezing Seb’s hand gently. “You still have two _High School Musical_ ’s to show me.”

Seb laughs. “And then you can write some new _Choosical_ questions! Although, that trivia kicked my butt! How was I supposed to know who was wearing a red tie in the first movie during the audition scene?”

“By watching the original 37 times instead of wasting time on the sequels.” Carlos nudges his knee.

“Watching the sequels is not wasting time! I think the moment you see ‘I Don’t Dance’, you’ll change your mind,” Seb insists.

“I guess we’ll have to see!”

“Speaking of the trivia…” Seb trails, scooting closer. Instantly, Carlos’s stomach flips. “Or more the moment, really. Um, you called me _‘honey’_?” he asks, clearly blushing although acting like everything’s normal and not like he initiated the conversation Carlos had been thinking about all night.

“Yeah, it was kind of an accident, but, um,” he falters trying to find the words. Carlos is suddenly very aware that he’s currently holding Seb’s hand, and that Seb is sitting close enough to him that their thighs are pressed together. If he’s going to do anything tonight, it’s going to happen now.

Finally, he speaks. “What is this?” he asks, nodding his head at his hands.

“What do you mean?”

“Like… what are we?”

Seb glances up at him. “What do you want us to be?” 

“Together,” Carlos says before he loses his courage. “Like, _dating_ together, If you want, I mean. Or we can keep doing whatever this is and pretend this didn’t happen-”

“Carlos,” he interrupts. “That’s what I want, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t know how to ask. But that’s what I’ve wanted for a while.”

“Me too,” Carlos breathes. “Since homecoming.

“Maybe a little before then, too,” Seb smiles, making him smile too. He suddenly bites his lip before dropping his head on Carlos’s shoulder, bursting into giggles. 

“What?”

“Georgie has been not-so-subtly rooting for us _forever._ She’s going to freak when I tell her you’re my boyfriend,” he explains. 

“Car rides will never be the same," Carlos laughs, too, although he can feel his cheeks flushing at the word _boyfriend._ It’s absolutely everything he could hope for, and they’ve been officially dating for less than a minute

Seb lifts his head after a moment, locking eyes with Carlos. His eyes look nearly black. Their heads are definitely closer together now. In fact, if Carlos just-

A honk sounds from somewhere in the street, and he pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket.

“Oh, whoops,” he laughs, showing Seb the stream of missed messages from his mom that she was here.

“At least she didn’t come up here,” Seb points out, squeezing their still-clasped hands.

They stand up together, having to let their hands go so Carlos can go grab _the Chooscial_ and head to his mom’s car. Before he can make it to the steps, though, Seb grabs his arm and pulls him back.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Carlos,” he says.

Carlos grins, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek like Seb did on his porch the night of homecoming. 

“Happy Thanksgiving, honey,” he says, this time purposely using the pet name. Seb blushes, still visible even in the dark of the night. He squeezes Carlos’s hand one last time before letting him turn to pick up his game and get into his mom’s car.

“Sorry that I’m late. I was… talking. I didn’t see your messages,” he explains as he gets into the front seat.

His mom shrugs it off. She’s always been pretty chill about these things as long as he’s safe and lets her know where he is. “Was the party good, _mijo?”_ she asks instead.

“Yeah,” Carlos says, only blue eyes and blonde hair on his mind. _His boyfriend._ “Yeah, it was great.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy back to school btw if ur going back!! please stay safe and remember to wear a mask!! and if ur not going back to school, still wear a mask :)  
> same socials as always! on tumblr @klaineiac and back on twitter @SE3LOS !! <3


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